North Coast Connections

In the film classic 2001, a Space Odyssey, Dr David Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) is forced to shut down the spaceship's highly advanced main computer (affectionately named Hal) after it purposely killed Dr. Frank Poole (played by Gary Lockwood), purportedly in self defense. Those of us who work and operate in the Microsoft realm of operating systems and software have similar dreams of turning off runaway features that are either meant to make our lives easier (but don't) or are meant to phone home to rat us out to big brother Microsoft. This is a primer to clue you in on what, specifically, you can unplug and get away with it without serious consequences.

Once again, I thank TechRepublic.com for this terrific resource, which is offered free simply by registering on their website and searching for "Windows XP services that can be disabled." Oh yeah, and I'm not responsible if your computer catching fire or some other catastrophe happens as a result of following these leads. The full report has 6 times more features listed ... I have just excerpted a few. Some, I have tried and others I have not tried as yet. So caveat emptor ...

You can usually find these features by doing a search of your hard drive, or looking in your Control Panel:

AUTOMATIC UPDATES
This should either be disabled entirely, or at least set to alert you BEFORE downloading and installing updates. If you choose the later, be sure and refuse updates that "authenticate" the license of Microsoft products you use. Rene Agredano wrote an excellent Tech Beat article on this subject that is worth a read.

CLIPBOOK
Disable this feature that shares information with remote computers.

ERROR REPORTING
This annoying gizmo tattles to headquarters every time there is a conflict or a mistake. Disable it, or at least choose "Don't Report" if it asks permission.

MACHINE DEBUG MANAGER
This allows a software called Visual Studio to debug programs and it should be disabled.

MESSENGER
Another tattletale that sends Net and Alerter service messages and should be disabled.

NETMEETING REMOTE DESKTOP SHARING
This nasty critter allows other computers to assume control of your computer if you use MS NetMeeting features. Unplug it.

PERFORMANCE LOGS AND ALERTS
This collects performance information in a log. Drop it.

REMOTE DESKTOP HELP SESSION MANAGER
Unless you plan to call Microsoft and ask their technicians to take over your computer, disable this feature.

ROUTING AND REMOTE ACCESS
Unless you are on a network that shares LAN, WAN or VPN protocols, all this does is allow others to burrow into your system to do what they wish. Disable it.

TASK SCHEDULER
Unless you use this feature to do stuff at different times, such as defragment your hard drive at midnight or dump your recycle bin at 8am, it's just a potential time bomb that hackers can use to mess with your system. Whack it.

TELNET
Did you know that if your computer is on, that someone could use this to log on and run programs? Unplug it.

OK, now you can go out and play safely. If you get into trouble, find a 12-year-old child to get your system running smoothly again.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just when you thought that your computer, operating system and software had enough horsepower for the foreseeable future, Microsoft is about to launch two new upgrades that will shake your confidence. This is the time for you Mac-heads and open source geeks out there to yell one of those Homer Simpson WOOHOOs and gloat over your wisdom in unplugging from the Redmond WA tech behemoth. Those remaining 90% of us who for convenience, fear or necessity choose to stick with Windoze as our primary operating system and office suite, now wait for the hype to get separated from the reality so we can decide whether now is the time to upgrade. As for me, I've already decided … I am NOT going to upgrade to Windows VISTA for my new operating system (at least not right away), but I WILL upgrade to MS Office 2007 when it comes out next year.

Remember the hype and turmoil back in 1997 when Microsoft simultaneously introduced Windows '97 as a new operating system and Office '97 as a new office suite. What was particularly irksome was the incompatibility of one with the other. The old Windows '95 OS was so different from Windows '97 OS that it was almost like operating in two different worlds … the subsequent move from Windows '97 to Windows XP was not nearly as drastic. The office suite upgrade was worse … the move from MS Office '95 to Office '97 meant that unless you specifically chose to save word processing, spreadsheet, database or Powerpoint files in Office '95 format, they could not be opened or changed in the lower version. GOD, that was annoying!

I was raised as a Mac tech-baby and admit to a deep fondness for this counter tech-culture environment. In fact, every upgrade in the Microsoft operating system and office suite seems to be an attempt to be more Mac-like in look and feel. Unfortunately, as an IT consultant working primarily in government operations, Macs are nearly extinct and Microsoft is the dominant player. I had to switch out of survival, albeit reluctantly.

I dutifully upgraded operating systems from Windows '95, to Windows '97 and finally to Windows XP, but only when I upgraded my hardware (laptop or desktop). Unless Microsoft can convince me that their new soon-to-be-released operating system called VISTA has too much to pass up, I intend to decline the upgrade until I again upgrade my hardware and the new OS is pre-loaded. Usually, problems with upgrading operating systems arise with hardware incompatibility, so this is a safe strategy to avoid headaches.

I tend to adopt the "every other" rule when it comes to office suites and other software, and this would mean upgrading from my current Office 2002 to Office 2007, because I skipped Office 2003.

The new features of Office 2007 emphasize wireless and Internet collaborations, which fit nicely into my work needs. Among the neat features (reportedly) are:

• Support of Voice-over-IP Internet telephone capabilities;
• Unification of voice messaging, instant messaging, email and fax;
• Better utilization of Net Meeting conferencing features;
• A new "RoundTable" teleconference application that uses a cool 360 degree camera to see everyone at the table and zoom-in when needed.
• Collaboration with several cell phone and computer hardware partners to capitalize on the various new capacities.

Don't get me wrong … you've got to watch Microsoft like a hawk to make sure their "automatic updates" don't implant unwanted and unneeded spyware and Big-Brother-ware on your computer. A simple rule is to disable automatic updates without first alerting you and getting your permission. This way, you can at least read the various updates and choose those you want.

The bottom line to me continues to be the $64,000 question … will this technology make my life easier and enable me to be more productive? If the answer is yes, I'm inclined to sign up. If the answer is maybe, I will investigate further. If the answer is no, fugedaboudit (a technical term).

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I've neglected my blogging duties due to a sticky travel schedule. My last stop was Ft Lauderdale, which for July visitors is like hell with flowers. I'm glad to be home in Eureka where God leaves the air conditioning on most of the time and humidity is tolerably low. I will make up for my neglect by posting two or three blog entries this week instead of my customary one. Today we will look at the phenomenon of losing one's job because of what he or she says in a blog. The most notable example of this happen to Heather Armstrong who maintained a personal blog called Dooce. Now, when someone gets fired for mouthing off in a blog, the colloquial phrase is that they got "Dooced." I don't think Heather ever imagined (or wished) that her blog name would be turned into a verb. This is a fascinating study of free speech versus employers' rights.

My business is working in courts. My travel schedule this week took me to Ft Lauderdale to attend a national court management conference, and the subject of getting Dooced came up in two separate conversations. The first involved a court staff member working in a self help center who would regularly chronicle the activities and idiosyncrasies of customers on his personal blog. As in many discussions of this sort, the outcome hangs on the context and severity of the offense, and in this case it was clearly over the top. The blogger would comment on the attractiveness (or lack thereof), degree of endowedness (even though there is no such word) and the percentage of obesity of the women frequenting the court service office. He would regularly refer to clientele as losers, tweekers and dweebs, and mock the circumstances that brought them into the court. OK, want to guess what happened to him? (drumroll) ... he got Dooced.

The other example came up in the context of writing on this subject for the purpose of providing guidance to court managers when they encounter blogging indiscretions. While this professional association's quarterly publication runs a regular ethics column, the editors felt this was too important a topic to leave to a mere column. To their credit, they decided to run a "point / counterpoint" piece showing both sides of the argument. After all, courts are here to protect our constitutional rights, aren't they? Yet in the case of the aforementioned Dooced victim, don't court customers also have a right to their privacy and do they waive their protection from ridicule just because they walk into this guy's office to resolve a legitimate legal problem?

And lest we leave this discussion with the false impression that blog authors alone are subject to being Dooced, rest assured that those who post comments on blogs are equally liable for scrutiny by their employers. And frankly, the comment sections of most blogs are way more uncivil compared to the original posting that prompted the comments. Fellow local blogger Eric Kirk recently lamented the lack of civility by those posting comments ... and the emperor of local blogs, Captain Buhne, even stopped accepting comments because they were so over the top. Fred's Humboldt Blog is still allowing comments, but said he would reconsider if things got out of hand.

So be safe out there little cowboys and cowgirls. The classic example of where free speech ends is when someone shouts "fire" in a crowded theater. There are reasonable interpretations of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable when exercising free speech, and I (for one) strongly advocate for less rather than more restraint. Just be aware that personal liability is not limited to a slander lawsuit. We may be talking about your job here.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)