MSFT Money alert

If you're a MSFT Money user tommorrow is a big day. Here's the information:

Online Banking Services Changing in October
Beginning October 1, 2010, Microsoft Money will disable online banking services for all accounts that use a third party provider. Microsoft Money will continue supporting services with direct connections to a financial institution until online services are discontinued on January 31, 2011. Please see the following KB article for more information on how to identify accounts that may be disabled and instructions on how to proceed: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2390720

Wired and wireless

Last night I was trying to fall asleep and was just tossing and turning. I had taken some non-drowsey allergy pills and I was wired. Normally I sleep soundly since I got my CPAP machine a few years ago. But not last night.

Lying in bed and thinking about being "wired" I started writing a review in my head for the "wireless" Logitech trackball I'm currently evaluating. If I only had a brainwave transcriber I'd have the whole review written by now!

RIM tablet

This week Research In Motion showed their new tablet device that is scheduled for delivery in early 2011. The OS will be a new version of their Blackberry OS specifically designed for the tablet.

The device is small and light weight with a 7" LCD. Resolution is 1024x600 WSVGA and it has a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Hmmmmm, those specs sound familiar. I know, it's a Netbook with a touch screen instead of a keyboard!

RIM was very careful to avoid mentioning price or battery life. To me that means the current battery life sucks and they want to price it a high as the market will bear.

Will it be too little too late? We'll have to wait and see.

Texting

I have always been an anti-texting person. I know it's the way young people communicate today but I'm stiil against it. Learn to look people in the eye and actually talk to them people!! It's called "talking" and it's far more powerful than typing cryptic notes.

A study just came out that shows anti-texting while driving laws are increasing accidents, Why you ask? Because idiots are texting with their phones held so low they can't be seen from outside! Of course they can't see out of the windshield of the car they're driving either but sending a stupid text is more important than watching the road!

Let's hope they all kill themselves (without endangering any innocent bystanders) and improve the gene pool in the country.

IOLO Labs

We received this information from IOLO Labs and thought it would be on interest to our readers:

iolo Labs Discovers Two New Root Causes of PC Slowdown

In addition to hardware limitations and malicious infections, iolo Labs identifies Nine Root Causes of PC Slowdown which lead to performance loss over time

LOS ANGELES, CA – September 24, 2010 – Following nearly a year of research, iolo Labs, iolo technologies’ independent research arm, has discovered two new key factors that result in the symptomatic loss of computer performance over time.

While it is commonly known that hardware limitations such as inadequate memory levels, low storage capacity, processor bottlenecks, or even malicious software infections can hinder computer speed, the universal – and more entropic – phenomenon of gradual and ongoing degradation of PC performance with continued use remains unexplained by these hardware-based factors and has confounded computer users for decades. Since 1998, iolo Labs has analyzed millions of PCs in an effort to quantify the seemingly inevitable performance entropy that occurs during everyday computing use, and to create software and tools that can effectively reverse and prevent it. With the addition of two newly identified factors - program misalignment caused by file system entropy, and resource deadlock caused by incremental software redundancy - iolo Labs now counts a total of nine root causes of PC slowdown.

Nine Root Causes of PC Slowdown	Symptoms
1. Program misalignment	Slow start-up, sluggish program behavior
2. Available RAM decline	Universal system slowdown
3. Windows start-up bottlenecks	Slow Windows start-up
4. Redundant programs	Lock-ups, general system slowdown
5. Mismatched internet settings	Lost connections, slow internet browsing
6. Registry errors	Unpredictable hesitations and freezes
7. Registry bloat	Universal system slowdown
8. Fragmented system files	Excessive hard drive churn, freezes
9. Accumulated clutter	Sluggish behavior, premature drive failure

Program Misalignment and Data Entropy

In the 1980s, when programs consisted of single large files, disk defragmenters were invented to ensure those files were stored contiguously on the hard drive, thus reducing drive head movement needed to read them. In today’s world, complex software programs consist of a small main program and potentially hundreds of dependent files. Yet disk defragmenters fail to understand and accommodate the critical interdependencies and relationships between each program and its supporting set of dependent files. While the vast arrays of files enabling programs to run may initially be perfectly aligned for maximum performance on a new PC’s hard drive, they tend to become misaligned and scattered across the hard drive as a result of Windows and program updates, and even the act of disk defragmentation itself. iolo Labs refers to the resulting phenomenon as File System Entropy. As the level of entropy increases, it causes severe amounts of unnecessary hard drive head movements and overall processing fatigue, which translates into programs that take increasingly longer to load and are progressively less responsive over time.

Redundant Programs and Resource Deadlock

Regularly uninstalling computer programs that aren’t being used has long been a key act of digital housekeeping aimed at freeing up extra storage space and increasing speed by releasing the memory and CPU resources demanded by these programs. However, iolo Labs research has discovered that redundant software – programs that duplicate or overlap in their functions – represent a much greater threat to performance and stability. As multiple programs that attempt to provide the same functionality are run simultaneously, they often end up attempting to “lock” the same vital system resources for their exclusive use. The ensuing phenomenon of resource deadlock nearly always produces acute performance loss and unpredictable freezes, in some cases rendering a machine completely inoperable. iolo Labs research confirms that proactively identifying and removing unused redundant software can be a significant factor in restoring a PC’s speed and stability.

iolo Labs has been working directly with the iolo technologies engineering team to aid in the development of tools that effectively pinpoint and address these newly discovered root causes of PC slowdown.  These new tools are planned for general public availability later this month as part of the company’s anticipated System Mechanic 10 product release.

Free AntiVirus software

I recently was introduced to a free anti-virus software product. The maker of Comodo AntiVirus has challenged Symantec to a head-to-head competition to see who makes the better product and that intrigued me. I went to their web and downloaded the free version to give it a try.

I've been running it for a few days now and I have been very pleased with nthe results. I'll write a full review after I've had a chance to wring it out a bit more.

If you want to try it yourself go to antivirus.comodo.com

Problem resolved

Yesterday's frustrating efforts to remove FailSafe from a Netbook computer I'm testing finally has reached a happy ending. After my first call to tech support I tried the online chat support and got nowhere fast. The tech I chatted with recommending calling again because that was the only way I could get the help I needed.

The second call went better, the person I talked to actually spoke English! After almost an hour of trying everything under the sun he left the case file open and promised he'd call me with a solution when he found one. At 8AM this morning I received a call from him and he had good news. He finally found someone at Phoenix who gave him a link to a removal app. I tried it and it worked!! Yeah!! No more FailSafe!!

 If you have a computer with FailSafe on it and you want to remove it go to download.failsafe.com/fspatch.exe and download the file. Run the app and you'll be as happy as I am.