Backing up your files is a problem that computer users find anything, but easy to overcome. Now some new software called Dropbox may help you.

It uses Amazon’s S3 cloud based, file system to store data. “Cloud” means that the data is stored “somewhere out there on the Internet”. Once downloaded and installed, Dropbox puts a little icon in the system tray, and creates a new folder called Dropbox. To backup files just put them in the Dropbox folder. They will then be automatically encoded and copied into your own personal storage space in the cloud.

The files have to be in the Dropbox folder to be recognised. To some people this will be a non-problem, they will just put everything into the Dropbox folder. Others may see this as a nightmare solution. As the files are not in the correct folders it will be tempting to copy, rather than move, them into the Dropbox folder. Having two copies of a file is a sure fire way to get confused about which is the most up to date. Luckily there is a solution to this problem. Simply create a “symlink” in the Dropbox folder to the file you want Dropbox to backup. Windows users will have to use the Mlink command for this. Now there is only one copy of the file, stored in the folder you want, but Dropbox knows about it because the symlink makes it look like the file is in the Dropbox folder.

Dropbox is more than a backup system. It also provides revision history, this neat feature saves a history of updates to the files stored in the Dropbox folder. If you happen to accidentally save a file after making some disastrous change, by using the revision history feature, it is easy to recover the version of the file you want.

Because you are able to install Dropbox on more than one computer it is also possible to synchronise your files across your multiple computer systems, even across different operating systems. This is handy for those with a laptop and a desktop. It can also be used to transfer files between your work, and home PC.

Contained within the Dropbox folder are two folders, “Public”, and “Photos”. These two folders allow the sharing of files with other Dropbox users, or via the web, with a URL that Dropbox generates. Remember putting a file into these folders doesn’t make them accessible to others until it is specifically allowed.

Using the Photos folder is an easy way to share your photos with others. Create a folder in the Photos folder, and fill it with photos. Then use the “Copy public gallery link” option, and email the generated URL to anyone with whom you want to share your handy work.

There is also a way to share files without using the Public or Photos folders. Simply create a folder in the Dropbox folder and put the files to be shared into it. Then all that is needed is to click on the folder and select “Share”. Combining this feature with the revision history is a simple way of allowing more than one person to work on a document at once. People that you “Share” folders with need to install Dropbox on their PC, but if that is a problem store them in the Public folder, and share them by URL, over the worldwide web.

Dropbox is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems, and can be downloaded for free. The first 2GB of storage is also free.

• Dropbox
• Dropbox Wiki
• Wikipedia – Amazon S3
• Amazon S3
• Dropbox – Mlink
• Microsoft – Mlink
• Tech Republic – Mlink
• Wikipedia – Cloud Computing

More and more of us are carrying around laptops and notebooks. Their growing popularity means that our personal information and precious files, like photographs and mp3s, are at greater risk of loss. According to one report there are 12000 laptops lost in US airports every week, and 70% of them are never recovered. That’s a lot of laptops! And with the devices getting smaller, it only makes them easier to filch.

There are things that can be done to secure your laptop, and, hopefully, safeguard your Kodak moments. Locks are available, somewhat like those used to chain bicycles to power-poles, and products are available to ensure the identiy of the person, using the laptop, is valid. There is also software available to locate a lost laptop.

Until recently that software has been based on proprietary code, and used a third-party central service for tracking the whereabouts of the device. These offerings have also had questionable privacy, in that it was possible that others could track the laptop, as it travels around, and therefore track the owner.

Adeona, new software from the University of Washington, USA, claims to be “privacy-preserving”. Meaning that only the owner can use their system to track the laptop. But wait there’s more! It is free. Free in both senses of the word. Free at no cost, and free, as in open-source. Adeona was the Roman Goddess of safe return. The software is available for Windows, MAC OS X, and Linux operating systems.

Once downloaded, installed, and activated, Adeona goes to work. At intervals that average 30 minutes it will send information to a distributed storage system. This information includes IP addresses, nearby routers, the wireless hot spot, and, if you have a MAC, a photo of the current user. All this information is encrypted. An IP address is an identification number given to each computer connected to the Internet, for example 192.159.1.56. Think of it as your computer’s phone number. Routers are equipment that connects bits of the Internet together, and a wireless hot spot is where connections can be made to the Internet, via a laptop, without using cables.

If your laptop goes astray it is a simple matter of finding another computer on which you can install Adeona. Once installed you run “retrieval mode”, and this information is downloaded. The writers of the software claim that by giving this information to the police, they, with the help of ISPs, who can identify where the computer was used, will be able to locate the missing computer, and hopefully return it to its rightful owner. You should also take note of your laptop’s make, model and serial number, thus helping police to identify it, when recovered.

Adeona need not be restricted to laptops. It can also be installed on desktops, and servers. The university is also hoping to release a version for devices like the iPhone.

There is one major problem. The unscrupulous person that takes possession of your computer may have enough knowledge to wipe your hard drive, reinstall the operating system, or just remove Adeona before it can issue a report. In saying this, there is always the chance that expert thieves are going to get around any steps taken to prevent theft. In the majority of instances, the felon will be an opportunist with no knowledge of Adeona, thus allowing the software to report the laptops new location.

It is always better to be safe than sorry.

• Dark Reading – Laptop Losses Total 12,000 Per Week at US Airports
• The Register – Home Office coughs to stolen lappies
• Kensington Laptop Locks
• Biometric Software
• Absolute laptop security
• Adeona
• What is My IP address

September marks Google’s tenth birthday. They celebrated by announcing just what the world needs, another web browser. They call theirs, Chrome. Why would Google go to all the trouble of creating a new web browser, when there is a perfectly good one available? It’s called Firefox, and most people don’t even know that it exists!

Google has some perfectly good answers to that question. Since 1998 the way, web pages present their contents, has changed. Back in the nineties there was no video, and the use of sound was minimal. Web applications were a rarity. Now videos are everywhere, and applications on the web have become so sophisticated that it is possible to use web-based, word processors, spreadsheets, and other office type applications.

All this functionality requires, according to Google, speed, stability, and security. They have addressed this by a fundamental change in browser design. In Chrome each tab in the browser window has its own environment, separate from others. This allows greater stability, because if one tab should fail due to a bug, only that tab crashes, not the whole browser. Security is enhanced, because there is no cross communication between the tabs. To address the issue of speed, Chrome has a new “engine”, they call “V8″, which speeds up the running of web applications. The code, that displays the web page, is also of a completely new design, allowing pages to appear much faster.

Google required this new approach as they are committed to computing in the cloud. That is, allowing people to use applications that do not run on their own PCs, but on Google’s servers, somewhere out there in the Internet. While this can be done with current browsers, it can be a little bit slow. By redesigning the browser, Google have openly declared that they are in direct competition with Microsoft for the future of computing. Cloud computing, sometimes called Software As A Service (SaaS), is effectively positioned to replace Microsoft Office, and make the Windows operating system almost redundant.

But TANSTAAFL (as Simon Jester scrawls on the walls of the lunar colony in “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein). There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. The browser may be free to download but Google will want to recover the development costs, somehow. Google has, arguably, the largest database of individuals’ search details. By supplying these individuals with a browser, Google is now able to keep track of every page visited, as well. A much needed bonus, allowing those Google ads to be even more specific, and targeted to the individual, than they are now.

Chrome, at the time of writing, is only available for Windows. It has been released as a beta version, this means that there are bound to be some problems. Some have already been reported, and there are warnings that it may not be as secure as Google thinks.

Interestingly, one of the main developers of Chrome is ex-Aucklander Ben Goodger, who worked extensively on Firefox, concentrating on the extensions facility. Goodger joined Google in 2006, and immediately started work on Chrome. Unfortunately there is no extensions facility in Chrome. Extensions are one of the major features in Firefox, and Google have announced that extensions will be coming to Chrome.

For Chrome to succeed, Google has to battle against inertia. People are unlikely to change from Internet Explorer on a whim. Firefox, and the lesser known Opera browser have found this out. Sometimes, just being better, doesn’t mean that you get the largest market share.

• Search Engine Land – Google Is 10 Years Old? Finding The Real Google Birthday
• Wikipedia – TANSTAAFL
• Wikipedia – The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
• Wikipedia – Robert A. Heinlein
• Gigaom – Why Did Google Abandon Firefox?
• Ben Goodger
• Google Blog – A fresh take on the browser
• Google Blog – Update to Google Chrome’s terms of service
• Google Blog – Making terms of service clearer
• Google Comic – Announcing Chrome
• Google Chrome – Download
• Wikipedia – Cloud computing
• Wikipedia – Software as a Service
• New Zealand Herald – Beware Google Chrome, warns security specialist
• CNET – Google’s Omnibox could be Pandora’s box
• Internet News – Google: Chrome Browser Will Make Money
• Computerworld – Chrome not so shiny from a privacy perspective
• New Zealand Herald – Is Google’s new Chrome browser any good?
• Stuff – Google Chrome needs more polish
• Internet News – Google Hopes Chrome Will Help, Not Hurt Firefox
• Zemlin’s Blog – If Google’s new browser isn’t even available on Linux, why is this great news for Linux?

Back in the antiquity of computing, it’s not that long ago possibly some of you will remember, there used to be a bulky terminal sitting on your desk. This terminal was connected to the company’s network, and allowed you to enquire about the level of stock, progress of an order, state of an account, and so on. Inter-departmental memos were either handwritten, or typed by a nameless girl in the typing pool, and delivered by the company mail-boy. There was no email, spreadsheets, word processing or the Internet.

Then came the PC, and it freed workers from the centrally controlled computer system. There was still a box on your desk that looked the same as a terminal, but you could type your own memos and reports, and use spreadsheets for all manner of things. After a while the PCs were connected to the Internet, and email swept away the company mail-boy. The software was installed on your office PC, and all your data was stored there, or on a file server attached to the Local Area Network (LAN).

When all this happened there was some resistance, by die-hard IT professionals, to the autonomy that PCs gave the user. There was also a large logistical problem, how do you keep track of all the software on the ever growing number of PCs in the company? Now there are growing demands for access to company data at any time, and anywhere.

The latest buzz word in the IT world is SaaS – that is Software as a Service. A day doesn’t go by without an article mentioning SaaS appearing in my web browser.

Oh how the pendulum swings. With SaaS, that PC on your desk will act just like the terminal of old, all be it a much smarter one. The software that used to be installed on your PC is now installed on another computer to which your PC is connected by the Internet.

SaaS solves the problems of portability, the Internet is available everywhere. It also removes the problem of software proliferation and maintenance. Financial savings can also be made by companies, both big and small. By adopting the SaaS methodology, there will be reductions in the cost of hardware, software, and staff levels in the IT department.

SaaS provides not only word processing, spreadsheets and the like, but extends to other applications that a company, however small, will require. The cost of writing, and maintaining software is enormous. Many projects in the past have been curtailed because of cost. These costs can now be shared across organisations, because the SaaS provider develops and maintains the software, not just for one company, but any that wish to use it, provided, they pay.

Google’s SaaS offering is a package called Google Apps. It provides word processing, spreadsheet, calendar, chat, web page creation, and email. There are 3 levels of entry into Google Apps, Standard Edition which is free; Premier Edition for a cost of US$50 per user per year; Education Edition which is also free. The Standard Edition is supported by Google advertising, while the Premier, and Education Edition are ad free.

eStuff has already featured articles on the Google offerings, as well as Spresent, and Thumbstacks (1, 2). ThinkFree also provides word processing, spreadsheet, presentation applications, and also 1GB of data storage, all for free.

SaaS will not just change IT in the workplace, but also for the home user. More and more people want to sever the ties to the desktop PC, and do their computing wherever they wish.

Microsoft Windows Vista is on the shop shelves at last, but apparently that is where it’s staying. A report, from research firm NPD Group, claims that sales of Vista are 59% lower when compared to Windows XP at its launch. That has worried Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer so much, that he is claiming that sales’ forecasts for Vista may have been “overly aggressive.” He has also been taking aim at piracy, saying “Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth…”

Along with this, Ballmer and Microsoft are spreading the usual FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about Linux, an alternative to Windows. They are claiming that “every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability”, because Linux is using some, as yet undisclosed, intellectual property belonging to, who else, but Microsoft.

There is probably more than one reason why Vista is slow to sell. In my opinion, the main reason is the general public do not upgrade their operating systems. They upgrade their computer. This means that they will only switch to Vista when they consider their PC running Windows XP is too old and tired. Think of your PC as a car. Would you rip out the engine of your car, and put in a new one that Toyota has on sale? I don’t think so!

Another reason for Vista staying on the shelves is probably the vast number of PCs that do not meet the minimum requirements for running the operating system. If you have less than a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of memory, and 40GB of hard disk space, you may want to think twice before purchasing Vista.

Vista also raises some very interesting usability issues. Peter Guttman a security researcher at the University of Auckland, and self described “Professional Paranoid”, has written a critique of Vista. Briefly, he claims that if you are lucky enough to have a PC with high-end display, video card, and the other features, required to run Vista Aero Glass (one of the Vista packages), the benefits of these hardware devices will be lost, as Vista downgrades their performance in an effort to prevent piracy of the DVD, or audio that you are trying to enjoy. It does not stop there. Vista will “switch off” any hardware that it considers might allow piracy. If you “fiddle” with your hardware in any way this “safety feature” may be activated. Wouldn’t it be just peachy to have your PC stop working when Vista decides? (5, 6, 7, 8)

For those of you who want to consider the move to Vista, I recommend reading an archived eStuff article. It may help you make your decision. It was written about upgrading to Windows XP, but the six points it contains apply to upgrading to Vista, as they do to upgrading any software.

Some of you may think that it is just not worth it, and it is time to switch to Linux. eStuff recommends Ubuntu as an easy to install, and use, Linux distribution.

Way back in September, I told you about Google’s range of office software, that runs inside your web browser. That is the word processor, and spreadsheet programmes, and I said if you combine them with Google’s Gmail, Calender, and Notebook, you had a comprehensive set of office software that all run in a web browser, and are available to you on any computer anywhere, your files being stored somewhere on the web. The only software missing was a Powerpoint equivalent, to produce presentations.

In this article, I want to tell you about two options for building presentations online, using just your web browser.

The first one is Spresent. Based on Flash, which is a technology that allows you to create animation, for display, on a web page, Spresent allows the building, and sharing by email, or the web, of presentations.

There is a set of standard templates that you can base your presentation on, or if you wish, you can build your own layout. There are several templates to choose from, as well as a selection of photographs, and clip-art. You can also use animated images, and you have the ability to animate the text you input. There is the opportunity to select wallpaper to act as a background to your information. Photos, and images stored in Flikr can also be used in the presentation.

It is very easy to build a presentation with Spresent, and once you start construction, you can get lost in the software for hours.

I have produced a sample presentation as an example of what is available. There is a gallery with examples, at the Spresents web site, that are better than anything I could produce. For more information take a look at the YouTube videos (1,2), which provide a basic introduction.

Another answer to the presentation question is Thumbstacks. In comparison to Spresents, Thumbstacks’ look is minimal, and there are no templates etc available, you have to provide all that input yourself. But I wouldn’t let that distract you from giving it a try. Once again it utilises Flash, but only if it is available. Another technique, called Ajax, is used, if Flash is unavailable.

Despite the minimal feel you can manipulate the fonts, size and colour of the text, to produce a decent set of slides.

Apparently the software is very new, and still has a few bugs. The author recommends that you do not rely on it for “mission critical” presentations. He has plans to expand the functionality by adding features such as; drawing tools, allowing the slides to include, lines, arrows, shapes, etc; export to Powerpoint, and other formats; private sharing of presentations. The sharing at the moment is only public, but the “public” has to know the URL; and lastly, a search feature for finding public presentations.

Once again I have produced a very simple slide to show you what is possible.

Currently I believe that Spresent has the edge, and produces better presentations, but Thumbstacks is still in its’ infancy, and should improve over time.

The question is, which one will Google purchase to include in its suite of office software?

MySpace, the social networking site favoured by teenagers, recently had an embarrassing security problem. Some devious people had placed an advert on their pages. Unknown to MySpace, and surfers, anyone clicking on the ad infected their PC with a virus .

This virus used a known security flaw in Windows, called the Windows MetaFile bug, which had been fixed by Microsoft months before. The fix had to be downloaded from Microsoft, or the PC was still vulnerable. It mattered not one bit that you religiously updated your virus scanner. The problem was with Windows itself.

Microsoft regularly releases fixes, for all sorts of problems, which are crucial to the well-being of your PC, and data. The MySpace incident proves that millions of people do not update their software regularly. No matter how hard Microsoft tries to get people to do so, there will always be some computers that need fixes applied. Easy meat for the cyber-villains.

Recently Microsoft stopped support for Windows 98, 98SE, and ME. It will be dropping support for XP Service Pack 1 in October. Windows 95 has been unsupported since the end of 2001. Not only do you have to apply the fixes, but you to move to the latest version of Windows.

Currently the IT world is in hiatus, holding its breath, patiently waiting for the release of Microsoft’s next incarnation of Windows – Vista. It has been a long time coming. It was first heard of way back in 2001, under the codename Longhorn. It has had many delays, and this year there have been reports of major code rewrites, as parts of it were found not to work, as expected.

The release date for Vista is still vague, but we are told it should be out some time in the first quarter of 2007. This has upset many IT companies, and retailers, who hoped to make a buck, or two, selling it, and the new PCs that will probably be required, during the Christmas season.

Those of you thinking of getting a new PC, should ensure that it is Vista capable. A little sticker saying so, should appear on the case. The specifications for a PC capable of running Vista are a bit daunting. An 800 Mhz processor, 512MB of memory, and it takes 20GB of hard disk space. Then you need a DirectX 9.0 capable graphics card to experience the super, new, graphical presentation, included in Vista. These specs are the minimum requirements, so going on past experience, people are already recommending a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of memory, and at least 40GB of hard disk space. These requirements have led some commentators to suggest that many companies, and individuals, may not upgrade to Vista, and look at Linux instead .

To try and stop MySpace type embarrassments, Microsft have put in a huge effort to ensure that Vista will be more secure than previous versions of Windows. There is already some discussion that this is just a false sense of security.

More Windows Vista Links

• Tom’s Hardware Guide review of Windows Vista
• 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista
• 20 Reasons Why Windows Vista Will Be Your Next OS
• We test three different retail computer systems sporting the “Windows Vista Capable”
• Microsoft unveils Vista upgrade matrix
• Microsoft lights upgrade path to Windows Vista
• Microsoft: Want to see if your Windows XP-based PC can run Windows Vista?
• Microsoft: Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs
• Microsoft: Get Ready for Windows Vista
• Microsoft: Minimum supported system requirements
• Windows Vista’s recommended settings according to Microsoft, then according to Ars
• The truth about Windows Vista hardware
• Hurdle on horizon for Vista acceptance
• Windows Requirements, Then and Now
• Symantec highlights Windows Vista user vulnerabilities
• Ballmer lets slip Vista slip
• Gates ‘glad’ to delay Vista some more
• Microsoft sees no reason for Vista shipment delay
• Ballmer Analyzes Microsoft’s ‘One Big’ Vista Mistake

Anyone who can afford to pay US$20 million, to the Russians, for a trip to the International Space Station, has to be rich. Mark Shuttleworth is a very rich man, a very rich man indeed, and in 2002 he did just that. In 2004, through his company, Canonical Ltd, he started to distribute his own flavour of the Linux operating system. He named this Ubuntu, from the ancient African for “humanity to others”. In 2005 he founded the Ubuntu Foundation, which pays the Ubuntu developers, with an initial investment of US$10 million.

Ubuntu has set the Linux world a-buzz, and people are converting to this free alternative, to Windows in droves. The whole concept of Ubuntu Linux is that it should “Just Work” (Trade Mark). A community-driven project, Ubuntu is bound by the Ubuntu Philosophy of Software Freedom. These ideals have helped create a distribution that is easy to install, comes with all the software you could want, with access to more downloadable software should, there not be enough on the CD for you. There is comprehensive documentation available online. If you get into a sticky problem there is a large online community ready, and willing, to assist. It all means that people, switching from Windows to Linux, should be able to cope with the transition easily.

A CD package is available from the Ubuntu website. The package contains 2 CDs, housed in a cardboard wallet. One of the CDs is the installation CD, holding the Linux operating system and all the software to run on it. The full list is too long to mention here, but there is OpenOffice.org, providing word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. For email, there is a comprehensive program called Evolution, which provides similar functions to Outlook. Should you wish to use Thunderbird to read your mail, it is easy to switch. The web can be browsed with everyone’s favourite, open source browser, Firefox. If you like to listen to music, that is accomplished by using Totem.

There are at least two websites (Automatix and EasyUbuntu), that provide simple scripts, (small programs), to assist in the installation of software not provided during the initiall install.

For those of you wondering if you should take the plunge, the decision is made easier by the second CD in the package, which is a live CD. A live CD allows you to experience the Ubuntu system on your computer, without changing any files. You just put the CD in your CD-ROM drive and boot your computer.

Please note, I will not provide support for Ubuntu, or any problems that arise from installing the software. Ensure that you take the necessary precautions by backing up your data, and software before doing the install.

Links

• Ubuntu Website
• ShipIt Project – ShipIt lets you request the latest Ubuntu CDs that will be posted to you free of charge.
• Downloading Ubuntu – Ubuntu is easy to download. You can download a CD image and burn it yourself using a CD writer. You can download the ISO file directly, or join the Torrent by downloading the equivalent .torrent file from the download site of your choice. The download of a single ISO CD image is around 600MB.
• Introduction to Linux – The goal of this guide is to show people of all ages that Linux can be simple and fun, and used for all kinds of purposes.
• Linux for Human Beings
• Ubuntu Document Storage Facility. Here you will find an organised archive of Ubuntu Forums information for your favorite flavor of Ubuntu. This site is run and maintained by members of the Archival Team from UbuntuForums.org. All archived material displayed on this site is garnered exclusively from the UbuntuForums.org.
• Ubuntu FAQ
• Unofficial Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) Starter Guide. This guide was started by Chua Wen Kiat (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). It is now being maintained by the Linux Center of University of Latvia, and everyone else who is willing to contribute.
• Ubuntu Forums Starting page for all the fourms for Ubuntu.
• Ubuntu Wiki.
• Guide for installing Firefox 1.5.0.2 in Ubuntu Breezy 5.10.
• Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 Guide
• Windows to Ubuntu Transition Guide
• Personel Blog about the transition from Windows to Ubuntu
• “Here I share my experiences in putting the Ubuntu house in order on my machine.”
• Software management under Ubuntu – made simple! This is an excerpt from Beginning Ubuntu Linux, the definitive guide to Ubuntu. It can be bought from all good bookstores and via online shops like Amazon.com.
• Ubuntulinux Google Group
• Ubuntu Center Alpha 1 Released – Web Based Ubuntu Control

. Ubuntu Center is a web based interface for accessing all kinds of information that’s being stored on your computer running Ubuntu Breezy. This release adds tons of new features and bug fixes and is suitable for everyday use.

• Automatix (Automated GUI installation script) You need a logon to the Ubuntu forums to get to this page
• EasyUbuntu is an easy to use script that gives the Ubuntu user the most commonly requested apps, codecs, and tweaks that are not found in the base distribution – all with a few clicks of your mouse.
• How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu! – A graphical guide for all newbies with a Windows background using Ubuntu

When is a CD not a CD? When it is a copy-controlled disc.

To be a CD, or Compact Disc, the information, and by information I mean music, must be burnt onto the disc, using a procedure that Philips and Sony first announced in 1980. This standard is known as the Red Book. A disc not conforming to this standard is not an audio CD, and should not be called one.

Since MP3s first started being shared on the Internet, record companies have been trying to staunch the flow. They have tried everything in their battle against this affront to their business model. They have tried calling the sharers “pirates”. They have tried education, remember the “Burn and Get Burnt Campaign”. In America, they have tried suing people. Their latest weapon is the copy-controlled disc.

A copy-controlled disc looks like a CD, but isn’t a CD. These discs contain software, that the record companies believe will stop people copying the audio to their computers’ hard drive. Immediately these discs were released, on the market, horror stories started appearing on the Internet.

The Red Book standard was developed to ensure that every audio CD, and every playback device, would work together. It wouldn’t matter which CD you put into which player, you knew you would hear music. With copy-controlled discs this flexibility disappeared. Each record company has their own method of copy-protecting the discs. These new discs may not play in some CD players, and there is no way of knowing until you put the disc into the player.

You would also expect that if an audio disc was released, in a copy-controlled format, it would be a worldwide release, but this is not so. There doesn’t seem to be much point in trying to make it impossible for people in New Zealand to create MP3s, when, in the USA, the audio disc is not copy-controlled. Add to this, that, as each attempt at copy-controlling an audio disc is released, some hacker, somewhere, finds a way around it, and the MP3s still appear on the Internet.

The latest attempt at copy-controlling is from Sony BMG, who have bungled so badly that they are being sued by the states of Texas and California, and possibly New York, with a class action suit to answer as well. All because they released discs containing a rootkit. The purpose of a rootkit is to secretly run programs on your computer. Once installed, anyone knowing of its existence, can use it to exploit your PC and data. It was found in October, by chance, by an American security researcher.

The resulting furore saw Sony release a program to remove the rootkit, which only made things worse, and Sony BMG Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse announced, “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”. Which, of course, completely ignores the fact that your privacy has been violated, and your PC security compromised.

Needless to say, sale of the affected discs have plummeted, and the artists whose music is on the discs are complaining about lost income.

Sony BMG, in New Zealand, have stated that no discs released here carry the rootkit.

For more information about rootkits see eStuff, and for exhaustive coverage of the Sony debacle visit Boing Boing

You have to have a lot of faith in your product, if you promise to swim from Norway to America, only stopping in Iceland for some hot chocolate, if there are not one million downloads in the first four days of release. That is exactly what Opera Software CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner said he would do. Luckily, for him, the one million barrier was reached, but we missed a spectacle, that would surely have beaten any thing Richard Branson could come up with.

von Tetzchner was publicising the latest release, version 8, of the Opera web browser. Opera has been around since 1996, and he knew he was not going to get his feet wet, because over ten million copies of Opera were downloaded in 2003.

I was an early user of the browser when I still used Microsoft Windows, and on occasions, the Linux version; I can attest to the strength, durability, and speed of Opera. In fact, Opera claim to be “The Fastest Browser on Earth”, a fact backed by independent speed tests.

These days, though, speed is not as important as security, and Opera 8 claims to be very secure. It contains all the usual security features, but adds support for anti-phishing technology. So you no longer have to worry about false websites. Opera displays security information, alongside the address of the web page, you are visiting. Just a click, will give you more information about the validity of the web site security certificate.

Other features include:

* The very handy, tabbed browsing, which allows multiple web pages in the same window

* A pop-up blocker for stopping those pesky pop-up adverts

* A password manager for remembering your logon ids, and passwords, to all those sites that require them

* Keeping notes, like a digital Post-it Notes, linked to a website, you may want to refer to later

* Search Google, eBay, Amazon, and other sites from the toolbar

* Save open tabs as a session, and recall the session for browsing later

* Zoom in, and out, on the page you are viewing, from 20% to 1000%

* A clickable trash can, in the lower right of the screen, gives users access to all the closed tabs, and blocked pop-ups from their current surfing session.

* A, full function, email client allows you to import mail from Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora and others. Then once imported, you can forget about your old email client, and use Opera 8

* If you are a fan of newsgroups, and many are, there is an easy to setup reader, accessed from the toolbar.

* IRC chatting is made easy, by the ability to set up, and use, an account from the toolbar

* A very nice RSS reader is also made available from the toolbar

* The most intriguing feature, is Opera Voice, which allows you to control Opera with voice commands, and to have the web pages you browse, read to you

* For those who are privacy conscious, Opera 8 has an excellent, easy to use, panel that allows you to delete all data captured about your surfing session

By including email, newsgroup, IRC chatting, and RSS feed reading functions Opera 8 is more than just a browser, it is all the Internet software you want rolled up in the one download.

Opera comes in a free version that displays adverts on the screen, or for US$39 you can have a version that is advert free. For more information visit the Opera website.