Online updates are generally a good thing in Sneak's opinion, compared to the vulnerable alternative, but once upon a time it was only antivirus tools that updated on a regular basis. Then Microsoft added Windows Update to its operating system, followed by an update service for its Office suite, and now it seems that almost every application has this feature, and the frequency of updates seems to be on the increase as well.

Sneak wouldn't mind so much if these were a painless process or transparent to the user, but this isn't always the case.

For example, Adobe's Reader tool for Windows recently signalled for attention and asked to download an update. Sneak obliged, only to find that there were in fact three updates, each of which required Windows to be rebooted before the installer would continue with the next one in the sequence.

Following the final reboot, Adobe Reader suddenly discovered yet another online update (an upgrade to v7.0.8) that it said needed applying. Halfway through the install, this one also decided it needed a Windows restart before it could continue.

That's four reboots in one day, before Sneak has even got around to deploying the regular cumulative update patches and malicious software removal tool from Microsoft.

A quick scan of Sneak's Windows PC reveals at least half a dozen other applications that boast an automatic update service. Where will it all end? At this rate, PC users will spend more time watching their computer downloading updates and rebooting than doing any actual work.

December 22, 2006 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Intel has unwisely decided to attempt a spot of viral marketing to big up its Core 2 Duo processors. Its ObsoletePC.org web site ponders what to do with your old PC once you’ve bought a shiny new one, in the style of YouTube, MySpace, et al. Hence a lot of shaky-cam fake-amateur footage of people turning keyboards into skateboards, or old laptops into catflaps. The site carries no Intel logos but nonetheless has big clumsy corporate stamped all over it. It’s a bit like watching your dad at a wedding, trying to get down to the Scissor Sisters.

December 13, 2006 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

On 13 December last year, the One Laptop per Child project announced a plan to make its $100 notebook for third-world kiddies available in Q4 2006, but of course the inevitable overruns have since set in. It won't ship on time and, allegedly, won't cost $100. Perhaps the slow progress is due to the 1,825 reboots that project founder Nicholas Negroponte has apparently had to endure in the last 12 months. While bigging up the OLPC and simultaneously talking down conventional PCs, Double-N complained, “My computer crashes five times a day.” Given that Sneak hibernates a perfectly ordinary Windows XP ThinkPad at the end of every day and suffers an unscheduled reboot only when the moon has turned blue, Sneak is forced to assume that either Negroponte is using a very old, very unstable PC, or is turning his laptop upside-down and shaking it, Etch-a-Sketch-style, whenever he wants to clear the screen.

December 12, 2006 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reader Tony Woodhouse takes issue with recent green-tinged suggestions that phone users should unplug their chargers when they are idle.

“The argument against leaving them plugged in all the time is fallacious - in winter at least,” Woodhouse says. “Most people leave chargers switched on in thermostatically-controlled heated rooms, so the power dissipated as heat is presumably offset by a matching reduction in the energy needed to keep the room at temperature.”

Woodhouse suggests that users plug all their chargers into a row of sockets under their desk, to make a toasty foot-warmer. “Me and the wife have different mobiles and Bluetooth headsets so we need four chargers,” he concludes, “so I'm looking forward to substantially reduced heating bills this winter!

December 6, 2006 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sneak hears that boffins from the University of Washington in the US have worked themselves into a lather over the privacy implications of wireless-enabled running shoes. The Nike+iPod combo, trialled recently by IT Week’s breathless wheezer David Neal, use a transmitter in the shoe to keep the iPod informed of the runner’s progress, while software works out distance travelled, calories burned, and delivers upbeat audio encouragement via the iPod’s headphones. The US boffins point out that the shoe-to-pod data is unencrypted, and that a suitable network of snooping devices positioned around a city could be used to covertly track the movements of people. As security scares go, this one is slightly less worrying than fears that the Royal Mail might be covertly tracking your movements abroad from the postcards you send home to mum. If you’re that worried, don’t wear Nikes. Or wrap your feet in tin-foil.

December 5, 2006 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)