Corporate Fraud Preys on the Vulnerable

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Dell was found guilty of fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices and abusive debt collection practices. Corporate fraud preys on the vulnerable, the unprotected, the naive, the trusting members of our community. It steals their money and then steals their trust and dignity. All in the name of greater corporate profits. For shame.

Who is to blame in such situations? The easy answer is to look to the CEO and start pointing fingers. The degree to which Michael Dell is culpable in this scandal is something for a Congressional subcommittee to investigate. Look beyond the scapegoat, though, and you'll find a much larger failing.

Government agencies, whose duty it is to protect the public, are asleep at the switch. A court finding of fraud is not the way to address this kind of malfeasance. The harm has been done already and no restitution can make whole the victims of this fraud.

We need much stronger regulation of corporate activities if fraud of this kind is to be prevented in the future. Corporate antics in the modern age make the Wild West look like a subdued and refined age. It's time to rein in abusive practices. What's broken in this case of fraud is our government. Government is doing precious little to protect consumers against fraud. Our protectors are snoring. That should not be so.

Phil Shapiro
The blogger is an educator in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at philshapiroblogger@gmail.com

(Earlier PC World article on Dell and fraud.)

The Software That Made My Life Easier

A few weeks ago, I was told to give a presentation for one of the classes I am taking. Unfortunately, I left it until the last minute (almost). Next weekend I will be away, and unable to finish making the presentation (which was when I planned to), so I rushed to put everything together this weekend.

The presentation was supposed to be a PowerPoint slideshow, but alas, I do not own PowerPoint. And I'm not a pirate. What else could I do besides use OpenOffice.org Impress, a popular PowerPoint clone, to create my slideshow? The best part was that OpenOffice.org could export slideshows in the PowerPoint document format, allowing my professor to open the file if needed.

So I went work, and the process was pretty straightforward. The program functions a lot like PowerPoint, although some parts may be a bit more complex. I noticed that it is often hard to grab onto a certain text box or image if it does not currently have the focus. I was also unable to locate superscripts and subscripts. However, the simplicity of installing a video into the slideshow saved me a lot of time. That's where my next problem came in.

I had to download a bunch of videos off of YouTube and insert them into the slideshow. I went onto YouTube, and thanks to RealPlayer, I was able to press a button and download them all directly to my computer using RealPlayer's instant-download function. However, I still had to convert them into .WMV files, and edit a few sections out. For some reason, Media Convert did not work for my videos, and I had to download the VLC Media Player, a popular open-source video and music player. VLC Media Player contains a wizard that allows you to convert various formats of videos to different formats, and thankfully it worked with my .FLV files.

Now I had to edit them. Because they were simple edits that involved cutting sections of video out, I just opened up Windows Movie Maker and spliced certain scenes out. After resaving the movies, they were finally inserted into the slideshow.

The final step (which I have yet to do) involves putting the slideshow, along with all the videos used, on a flash drive and bringing them in to use on a projector for my presentation. Thanks to all the software mentioned, I was able to get my project done in such short notice. Let's hope I don't fail!

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The Gates of Yahoo

A lot of talk has been about Microsoft?s bid to take over Yahoo recently. I didn?t question the move just Microsoft trying to take out more competition right? Could it be less of an offensive move and more of a defensive maneuver? Although many have tried and made impressive strides in recent years none still have been enough to storm the gates of the Google empire. Microsoft basically already has what Yahoo has to offer, so what would they really want from them? Why now? Could Google?s foray into Microsoft?s money maker, the operating system currently being developed for mobile phones, be enough for them to strike at the heart of Google?s own territory the search engine?

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GTalk Needs One More Feature

Last night I was teaching my graduate school class in educational technology and needed to have all of my college students in a group chat room. All of my students are required to have a GMail account, so I reckoned I could easily create a chat room within GTalk.

Not so. While it's possible to do a group chat in GTalk, I would have to add each student individually to the chat -- rather than select them from my GMail contact list. Within my class period I didn't have time to add students individually to a group chat, so we had to make do in other ways for the lesson I was teaching.

Ideally I'd love to save all the members of a group GTalk chat to its own group, so that I can easily recreate the group chat experience with a minimum of mouse clicks and efforts.

GTalk is a fairly new Google service. I'm hoping a better group chat experience can be added to an otherwise excellent service.

Phil Shapiro

The blogger is an adjunct professor of education at a university in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at: philshapiroblogger@gmail.com

Copying and Pasting

This week's tech tip is on copying and pasting. I am going to go out on a limb and assume everyone already knows what copying and pasting is. So I am going to address what I consider one of the most annoying aspects of copying and pasting in Windows which is text formatting. As I'm sure you have noticed at one time or another, when you copy and paste text between two programs, the pasted text usually keeps the formatting of the copy source rather than matching the formatting of the paste destination. This can be quite annoying at times because you usually have to spend time reformatting the pasted text to match the formatting of the place in which it was pasted. There are two simple solutions to this problem.

If you are working in Microsoft Word 2007, there is an option for how to handle copy and pastes located in the Word Options menu and then the Advanced section.

Click here to see where MS Word 2007 Options are located.

Click here to see where the Advanced section is located.

My favorite solution, however, is a little more old school. I prefer this solution because it works in all scenarios, not just in MS Word. This solution is to open Notepad which is the free text application that comes with MS Windows. To launch Notepad follow these two steps:

Click on the start menu and then the Run option.
Click here for an example image.

Type "notepad" in the Run window and press OK.
Click here for an example image.

(You can also find a shortcut to Notepad by clicking on the start menu, then programs, then accessories.)

If you paste anything into the Notepad program window, Notepad will clear all formatting and keep just the text. Then you can copy from the Notepad window and paste anywhere you like with no formatting. This is especially helpful when copying text from Web Pages where you may encounter embedded images and links in the text. Using this simple technique will strip away everything except the text and allow you to paste the text anywhere formatting free.

I hope you find the tech tip useful.

Happy Teching,

Ryan Williams

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Computers in the Media

The other day, I was watching CSI, and I couldn't help but notice all the references to science, as well as computers, they made. For all I know, all the references to science were in correct context, but one thing caught my attention.

The episode was about a serial killer who would capture people in his taxi cab, and take them back to a warehouse to murder them. The killer eventually kidnaps a blogger to get his message out to the world. The investigators, back at the the station, are viewing his blog, and notice how the entries are being posted in real time. One of the investigators then stated that she would quickly code a program in Visual Studio to create a GUI interface to trace the IP address, and find where the posts were coming from.

There's a problem with this scenario. I will ignore the fact that programming a GUI interface would probably take longer than writing a command prompt program, and skip to the part that matters. How exactly were they going to trace the IP address? In order to get an IP address, they would have to packet sniff, and the blogger would have to be on the same network as the investigators, and chances are, he wasn't.

What would have happened in real life? Well, I would imagine it would go something like this. The investigator makes a call to the blog service that the blog is hosted on. If the service monitors what IP addresses connect to their servers, they could immediately respond with the address, but if not, more calls would need to made to the internet service provider that the blog service uses. Keep in mind that I do not work for the government or any investigation service, so some of this may be wrong, but in theory, the investigators' methods would not work.

I know that it's just television, and a bit of false information is okay, but I do believe that shows like CSI could gain more intellectual viewers (although I'm sure they have a lot of them already) if they included correct information, or at least a bit more info to explain their methods. Sure, it may not be relevant to the plot, but it couldn't hurt!

One intellectual show, although it is a comedy, that I enjoy watching is The Big Bang Theory on CBS. The show focuses on two ?nerds? who work in the field of physics, and is filled with various references to science, as well as the stereotypes of what intellectuals like to do with their spare time, such as playing MMOs and other video games as well as watching lectures by Steven Hawking.

I am glad to see that our television is not completely filled with idiotic references to nothingness (that means you, Family Guy). Although I do not watch television much anymore, I have to say that I am glad that I can sit down and watch a program that won't leave me feeling more idiotic than I was when I sat down.

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Economic Stimulus Checks -- A Bonanza for Apple?

As many as 116 million American families (and individuals) will be receiving an economic stimulus check within the next few weeks. (CNN) How many of those checks will end up at Apple, as people decide to get their next iPod, their next MacBook, their next iPhone? I'm reckoning that more than a few checks will end up in Apple's coffers. Possibly in the range of 115 million checks.

Probably not that high, but it's interesting to consider people's overall spending habits as this unexpected cash falls into their laps. Suppose you bought a Vista laptop a few months ago and you've had your fill of Vista for now. An economic stimulus check makes that MacBook or MacBook Pro less of a dream and more of an impulse buy.

If you've had a chance to try out the Eee PC laptop, that's where you might send your money. I bought an Eee PC back in November and while I like it in general, I'll be selling mine to buy the newer larger screen version coming out in June. Asus made a mistake in designing the keyboard of the Eee PC too small. It's a great little laptop, but you can have too much of a good thing when you start reducing the size of electronic devices.

Back to Apple, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple rolls out a marketing campaign to coincide with the economic stimulus check deliveries. Showing an Apple product with the phrase, "Your economic stimulus check has arrived," is enough to break the willpower of roughly 116 million people.

Let's check back with Apple's quarterly sales figures for the next quarter. How large a spike do you expect to see?

You Don't Have to Pay for Computer Security!

This week, I made a move that I am very proud of. I finally uninstalled McAfee Security Center. I know that some of you would call me an idiot, but McAfee's software was not protecting my computer at all. I never updated it, as I was always busy when those annoying popup dialogs would appear. Therefore, it wasn't helping.

But my computer isn't completely ope n to all hackers and viruses. I now run AVG Free Edition and COMODO Firewall Pro. Sure, they might not be as good as some of the software that you have to pay for, but they work for me. I also don't worry as much about protection as an average user might, because I believe that I am more tech-savvy than most computer users (hopefully). For example, I don't believe those Nigerian 419 scam letters I get in my inbox.

So here's the deal. I like AVG Free Edition better than McAfee, but why? AVG automatically updates its database everyday, and even though it might slow my computer while doing it, it runs before I start any major task I have to do. One thing I am not satisfied with, though, is the fact that AVG does not always remind you to scan for viruses. But if you are conscious as to what could happen to your computer if a virus does infect it, then you should be able to handle scanning by yourself.

COMODO Firewall Pro might not be as good as McAfee's Firewall, but it works just as well if you aren't too picky. For example, when a new program attempts to perform a certain action that COMODO is hesitant about, a big box will pop up on the screen. This box is considerably larger than the ones McAfee used. Finding the list of programs and their security rules also isn't the easiest task in the world with COMODO. However, I do like how it also can scan for malware, and will as soon as you install it.

So there's what I will be using to protect my computer for a while. I did not cover spyware, as I am still looking for a good program to use. I currently use Spybot, but I have not read the greatest reviews about it.

I feel like ending with one of those corny writer phrases. Hmmm...let's see....

Until next time, keep on computin'...?

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It's Time for PCWorld to Change Its Name

For the past 20 years the words PC and Windows were almost synonymous. Ask someone what kind of computer they owned, and if they said, "I have a PC," then you knew they didn't own a Mac or Linux computer.

Times have changed. The Eee PC has taken the world by storm. Apple is resurging with full force. Linux is here to stay -- and can only grow in use on desktops, cell phones and other mobile devices.

So it's time to say goodbye to PCWorld and hello to a new name for this magazine and web site. What would be an appropriate new name -- a name reflective of the new multi-OS world we live in? DWorld might be it -- covering the digital world in all its multifaceted forms.

I have Mac friends that would never consider reading PCWorld (or the PCWorld.com) web site, despite the excellent, interesting and useful Mac articles you're find here. Same thing for my Linux friends. They would never casually browse PCWorld.com, because historically this magazine only covered Windows solutions.

It's time for a name change, a change that reflects the changing times. Any other magazine might not have the courage, but the leadership of PCWorld has courage aplenty.

You need courage to be a good leader. And you need to exhibit that courage consistently, so that people are reminded that you are leading and not following.

Phil Shapiro

The blogger has been working to bridge the digital divide for 20 years in the Washington DC-area. He loves Macs, adores Linux and likes Windows. Reader responses welcome in the comments below or at philshapiroblogger@gmail.com

ASIO4ALL Enhances Your Sound Card!

Many amateur music producers face the problem of selecting a decent sound card that will work well with their creations. However, because decent sound cards and interfaces are pretty high-priced, many producers who are just starting out do not have enough money to purchase one. Sometimes their sound card has great sound quality, but is not ASIO-compatible. ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) is a protocol for audio that was created by Steinberg and is used by many professional producers because of its low-latency and high-fidelity operations. Low-latency is especially important for musicians who use a computer with MIDI equipment, as it decreases the time between when a key is pressed and when a sound is heard.

Chances are the cheaper sound cards on the market do not support ASIO. Fortunately, there is a solution for Windows users called ASIO4ALL that acts as a universal ASIO audio driver for the majority of Windows-compatible sound cards. It uses kernel-streaming and a variety of other methods to achieve ASIO compatibility. All that's needed is a WDM (Windows Driver Model) compatible operating system (Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 all are), a WDM audio driver for your audio hardware, and, as the website says, a little bit of luck. Thankfully, ASIO4ALL worked with the crummy sound card built into my DELL laptop. If it works with that piece of garbage, I highly suggest trying it with your sound card.

ASIO4ALL will not replace or change existing sound drivers in any way, install components that could affect the stability of your system, and overclock your sound card. It will usually not void any warranties, too, and the best part is it's absolutely free!

By writing this article, I do not guarantee that ASIO4ALL will work with your sound card, and although ASIO4ALL's website says that it will not affect your system, I and ASIO4ALL are not responsible for anything that happens to your system!

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