These days instant gratification is often portrayed in a negative light. When my kids want something right now my response might indeed be negative.  But on the other hand, I’ll admit that — at least when it comes to books — I’ve become an instant gratification junkie.

Back before the Internet, I used to buy books because I needed the information at my fingertips.  I still have a large shelf of books from O’Reilly and Associates, because if there was an animal book on the topic it was always a safe bet. I still pull them out from time to time, but these days I’m more likely to have a browser window open on one monitor while working on the other.

But when it comes to books, much of my reading is still driven by wanting to learn, and since my lovely wife gave me a Kindle for my birthday earlier this year, buying a book has never been faster.  For example, I ran across an interesting subject earlier today, and sure enough there was a good book on the topic available for the Kindle.  Minutes later, I had it on my desktop PC and when I finish this post I’ll just turn on my Kindle and in a minute or two I’ll be reading right where I left off.  Perhaps instant gratification isn’t that bad after all.

CNET has an interesting article on the Apple iPhone 4 antenna saga.  While I’d encourage you to read the whole article, in summary, the new phone is more sensitive, but the antenna position is prone to blocking when held in a certain way.  Apple’s explanation about software will change the display, and perhaps show you when you’re blocking the antenna, but it will have no impact on actual phone performance.

Personally I’d prefer if all the manufacturers would stop this hidden antenna nonsense, or at least let us pull it out for better coverage when we need it.  The closer the antenna to human flesh, the less effective it is.  Hopefully Apple gets the message that people actually want to make calls on their iPhone.

…if you hold it the right way.  Apparently while Apple is really good at user interface design, their RF engineering still leaves much to be desired.  According to CNET, Apple acknowledges the antenna issue in the iPhone 4 and recommends buying a case or not gripping the lower left corner.  Way to go Apple!

A common complaint among computer owners is that, over time, their computer starts to run slower.  There are a number of causes including hard drive fragmentation, registry fragmentation, registry errors, malware, general clutter and unnecessary start-up programs.

Taken individually, most of these problems aren’t that serious. Windows is getting better at avoiding fragmentation, and the majority of registry errors (usually created when a program is removed but the associated registry entries aren’t) only result in marginally slower performance. However, malware can present serious security and privacy concerns, and these issues tend to be cumulative. Over time your fast new computer can become sluggish.

More technically inclined users have an edge because they have learned to fight these problems along the way, noticing unnecessary icons in the notification area and disabling them, and occasionally leaving their notebook running overnight to defragment. (While Windows will schedule updates and defragmentation for you, it’s not much help if the computer is turned off or suspended at the scheduled time). But issues like registry errors are difficult to fix without the right software.

When your computer performance begins to suffer (or preferably before it does), there are things you can do. You can begin by cleaning up your hard drive.  Double click on “My Computer”, right-click on your “C” drive, select “Properties”, and then “Disk Cleanup”.  Next, clean up your desktop.  As my friend Fred Ennis pointed out the other week, when windows starts it has to look at every file on your desktop and determine what icon to display – and that takes time.

While up-to-date antivirus software will significantly reduce the likelihood of a malware infection, some can occasionally go undetected. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, while not perfect, will often detect and remove spyware, adware, Trojans, viruses and other malware that other products miss, making it a great option for disinfecting systems. They offer a paid version if you want real-time protection, but since I don’t want yet another program running all the time, I just periodically run the free version.

But to really tune up your PC, your best bet is software designed specifically for that purpose.  When I first heard of System Mechanic from iolo technologies I was skeptical, but after using it on three different computers I’ve become a huge fan.  System Mechanic simplifies tasks such as cleaning up your drive, defragmentation, disabling unnecessary start-up items and performing other system optimization tasks.

I tested System Mechanic on a three-year old notebook that had sluggish performance and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of issues it identified and the ease at which it resolved them. Performance definitely improved. I also tested it on my 64-bit Vista desktop and most recently on a test system running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I was surprised how many registry issues were detected on the latter system given that it has only been running for a few weeks.

Technical users can view System Mechanic’s findings and choose what to do about them, while those who wish to do so can run it in automatic mode. I did notice that the program can be a bit overly aggressive when removing start-up programs.  For example, it wanted to remove the Adobe updater (that checks for new Adobe products at boot time) and Windows Live Messenger – both programs that I want to run at boot.  However, removing them from the boot sequence would make the system boot faster, and it is probably better to err on the side of removing them.  Since I reviewed the results, I chose to disable some of the unnecessary software while leaving the ones I wanted running.

My 3-week-old Windows 7 test machine.

I particularly like System Mechanic’s rapid system status assessment and the fact that it immediately offers a “Repair All” option (great for less technical users) and “View Problems” for the more technically inclined.  The latter option opens a dialog with categorized information and various options for each category in the form of a drop-down.  For example, users may wish to simply run recommended actions such as removing system clutter and backing up the registry, but manually view and choose which (if any) start-up items they wish to disable.

Clicking on View problems presents categorized issues.

In the screen shot above you’ll notice that System Mechanic reported not detecting antivirus software, but the system does have the free version of AVG antivirus running on the Windows 7 machine I’m testing it on. I’m sure that iolo will address this in a future update. I’d also like to see a way to tell System Mechanic that I want specific programs to run at system start up and to ignore them in future scans.

I prefer to manually run System Mechanic every week or so, but for those seeking automatic, proactive system tuning, System Mechanic’s Active Care can be configured to periodically perform a variety of tasks including deleting clutter, automatically repairing registry and hard drive problems, and even backing up the registry.  Each task can be selected or deselcted, making Active Care a useful option when installing System Mechanic on a family member’s computer or if we simply don’t remember to periodically run it ourself.

Overall, I highly recommend this product for tuning up Windows PCs. A one year subscription for use on up to three computers can be purchased directly from iolo’s web site for US $39.99.

As I watched the launch of VMware vSphere 4 on Tuesday I was torn.  Part of the event was more corporate group hug than product launch, and in many ways vSphere is a logical extension of the company’s existing products. But a little voice in my head told me, “This is something big.”

Some technological leaps seem clear, especially when viewed historically. For example, we speak of moving from the mainframe to the PC – from centralized to distributed processing – as if it happened quickly.  But in fact it took years and there were several steps and stumbles before PCs replaced “dumb terminals” in numbers.

For the past ten years VMware has been developing leading-edge virtualization technology.  In the early days it was primarily used by developers and geeks.  Then more powerful servers appeared on the market, RAM prices plummeted, and virtualization moved into the datacenter. The business case for server consolidation can be simple: Less hardware, fewer racks, and power savings. 

But virtualization is quickly moving beyond simple server consolidation. VMWare provides the ability to move a running computer between physical boxes without any downtime.  A new feature allows a running “computer” to execute simultaneously in lockstep on two different physical machines — if one fails the other simply takes over.  Security products will defend each virtual machine against attacks.  And this will all work with existing operating systems and applications.

This year VMWare is bringing true cloud computing to the enterprise, and with it comes the ability to implement highly available systems and solid disaster recovery. We’re about to witness the next major jump in computing technology.  Hold on tight, it’s going to be an exciting ride!

[Zoe Brain is on assignment this week, but don't worry, she'll be back!]

As a child, I remember watching Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura with her wireless earpiece.  Today I use a similar peice of “science fiction” in my car so that I can keep both hands on the wheel.  In a generation we’ve gone from rotary dial telephones to mobile phones with wireless headsets.  From landlines to VoIP.  From dollars to pennies per minute to call other continents.  From hurried calls home to videoconferencing with the kids using Skype.

The telephone has become universal across most of the world and in many places wireless services are slowly but steadily displacing Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines.  It’s easy to understand why a young person moving out on their own may simply not feel the need for a land-line.  After all, their friends all just call (or text) their mobile.

I’m wondering what’s next.  Will the land-line survive?  For how long?

According to my tea leaves, we’re one generation away from the death of the residential telephone service because only a few things keep them alive:

• Mobile phones are too expensive in many areas.  While some US carriers are offering “all you can eat” plans, Canadian carriers aren’t there quite yet;
• Most residential alarm systems rely on POTS lines; and,
• Us ‘old’ people who are used to having them.

Over time, all these conditions will change.  I’ll be sure to save a touch-tone wall phone for the grandchildren — because they’ll probably never own one.

In TECHLife Post column today, I talk about how Skype is testing a SIP integration for businesses. This will allow Skype clients to make and receive calls directly from a VoIP-capable PBX.

How will this impact your business?

The Net has been thundering over the last few days about a security issue at Google, and some users have reported receiving the following email:

Dear Google Docs user,

We wanted to let you know about a recent issue with your Google Docs account. We’ve identified and fixed a bug which may have caused you to share some of your documents without your knowledge. This inadvertent sharing was limited to people with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document. The issue only occurred if you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, selected multiple documents and presentations from the documents list and changed the sharing permissions. This issue affected documents and presentations but not spreadsheets.

To help remedy this issue, we have used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as being affected. Since the impacted documents are now accessible only to you, you will need to re-share the documents manually. For your reference, we’ve listed below the documents identified as being affected.

We apologize for the inconvenience that this issue may have caused. We want to assure you that we are treating this issue with the highest priority.

The Google Docs Team

A lot of people are understandably critical of Google.  But the reality is that systems built like this are doomed to suffer security breaches for three reasons:

• There is often little ‘engineering’ in ‘software engineering’.  People who design most of the world’s software are ‘software artists’ or ‘software developers’ and apply few, if any, engineering principles to the task.
• Users of these services don’t demand — and often don’t desire — a high level of security.
• The applications rely on a single layer of security.

But the purpose of this article is not to bash Google or software developers.  I’ve written software and I’ll be the first to admit that some of it was hacked together as fast as possible for the same reason lots of software is.  The vendors provide exactly what the market is asking for.  The real problem is us.

When it comes to computers, software and the Internet, we consumers are singing the famous Queen song, I want it all and I want it now. We want instant access to information from any computer. We want sharing it to be very easy. We want it virtually for free and it is never fast enough.  And we seldom consider security until something goes wrong.

For some information, security really doesn’t matter.  Most of my personal email falls into that category.  Sure, I’d prefer that others don’t read it, but reality is that the impact on me if they did would be really small.  I use Google Apps for two non-profits I’m involved with.  It’s free, reasonably reliable, and it’s not any less secure than using ISP email accounts. But, for other information, the security provided by Google Docs and other, similar services is woefully inadequate.

The problem is that security seldom is free and easy.  As long as we insist on being able to walk up to any computer, enter a username and password, and access our data, we will continue to see security breaches escalate.  Passwords are a very poor authentication mechanism and using them as the only line of security invites disaster.  But we continue to use them because they’re cheap and easy.

PayPal gets it, mostly because, in the financial world, poor authentication directly results in monetary loss.  If you’ve been following PayPal, you already know that they’re offering customers the ability to use their mobile phone or a (US)$5 authentication token to protect their account.  My guess is that PayPal has begun this as a voluntary measure in order to test it out and gain acceptance, and that they will make it mandatory at some point in the future, as well they should.

Some markets are different.  Medical, aeronotical, defence and financial software used by banks are noted exceptions.  Some security software is also very well designed.  But it’s because in those markets very bad things can happen when the software fails, so customers demand better solutions and are willing to pay for them.

The technology required to make file sharing like Google Docs highly secure has existed for more than a decade.  If we cared about security, our browsers would have the ability to encrypt and decrypt files built right in and we’d carry certificates and keys around on a smartcard or USB device.  When we wanted our documents, we’d plug in the card or device, use a certificate to authenticate to Google Docs and download the document. Then it would be automatically decrypted. If we cared, we’d use a product like the USB devices from MXI Security that can validate the user’s fingerprint right on the device before giving access. If we cared, we’d demand that Google and other software-as-a-service (SaS) providers apply sound engineering practices so that software bugs don’t result in security breaches.  And, if we really cared, we’d be willing to pay at least a bit more to get it.

But, for the most part, we don’t care.  And, until we do, these security breaches will continue.

Fido has announced the launch of UNO, a new service that connects calls from a specially-enabled handset to a high-speed Internet connection when users are at home, as well as through the Fido wireless network when they are on the go. Customers use the same handset inside and outside the home, which offers the convenience of having one phone number, one voicemail, one address book and one bill. Customers can also talk as much as they want on their Fido phone while at home without using up their wireless plan minutes. A Fido voice-optimizing wireless router, which can be connected to an existing Internet connection, enhances wireless call clarity and reception inside the home network. Fido UNO is available on the Nokia 6301 handset, which retails for $50 on a three-year plan. Service plans are priced at $15/month (unlimited local calling) or $20/month (unlimited local and Canadian long distance) for wireless calling at home, in addition to the regular wireless voice plan. Existing customers can add the service to a current voice plan with the purchase of a UNO-enabled handset and receive the voice-optimizing wireless router free of charge.

Source: CWTA

Choosing a new software vendor can be a daunting task. Is the product as good as advertised? Is it reliable? Is it worth your money? Will the vendor be around in a few years?

If you’re having trouble separating the wheat from the chaff, there’s one good question to ask:

“Do you support 64-bit Microsoft Vista?”

If the answer is no, you’re probably not dealing with a serious player.

64-bit processors have been around more than 5 years, and there’s a good chance that you have one in the computer you’re reading this on, even though you’re most likely running a 32-bit operating system. There are a few reasons that the 64-bit version of Windows XP never really caught on, most notably because the major benefit of moving to a 64-bit operating system is the amount of RAM it can access. Back when I built my Windows XP desktop several years ago, 2 GB of RAM was more than I needed, and it was expensive. But today RAM is cheap: 4 GB of DDR2 memory is about $150. Window XP, like any 32-bit operating system, can address a maximum of 4 GB of memory, but if you install it you’ll find that you only have about 3GB of memory for applications. 64-bit operating systems, on the other hand, can use as much memory as you can get onto your motherboard.

Realistically, if you only use your PC for the web, word-processing, and email, 2 GB memory is enough, even with Vista. However, if you like to play games, edit video from your camcorder, or do a lot of digital photography, the extra few bucks to move up to 4 GB is worthwhile. And, as memory prices continue to drop, more of us will be loading up machines with 8 to 16 GB memory within a few years. A few years ago, 64-bit was the cutting edge, but today it’s going mainstream, and software vendors who don’t support 64-bit Vista are declaring themselves dinosaurs.

For most software manufacturers, supporting Vista 64 is quite simple because properly written 32-bit applications run fine. So when you read, “We don’t support 64-bit Vista”, what most are really saying is that they won’t invest the time to test their application on it. Device drivers are a different story, but assuming that proper development practices have been followed, moving a device driver from 32-bit to 64-bit is not that difficult.

These vendors are playing a numbers game, assuming that most of their customers won’t care. And, a few years ago, the vast majority didn’t, and those who wanted to couldn’t, creating a classic chicken-and-egg scenario. But times are changing, and those vendors who think they can get away without supporting 64-bit Vista are in for a nasty surprise as 64-bit moves toward achieving a critical mass.

I recently found a good example: Digidesign (owned by Avid), is a well-known player in semi-professional audio recording. You’d think that anyone working in that space would want a high-end machine with lots of RAM. However, not only does Digidesign not support 64-bit Vista, they even have an article instructing customers on how to build a dual-boot machine. I’ll give them credit for helping customers with old software, and for having the balls to suggest that customers install XP on their Vista machine so they can use them. However, two of their major competitors, PreSonus and Cakewalk support 64-bit Vista, so it’s only a matter of time until Digidesign starts losing market share.

There are plenty of other examples out there, and I’ll try to post them as they come along. In the meantime, the message to software vendors needs to be clear: Support Vista-64 or die.

I’m going to be a guest on CFRA’s computer show on Saturday April 14 and 21 around 11:00.

The interview I did last month is now availible as a podcast at:

http://www.cfra.com/audio/podcast/tcs/tcs-2007-02-10.mp3