Into Tech

With the Justice Department getting closer and closer to going after Google for supposed antitrust violation, we’re going to see more and more articles like the one in the New York Times this weekend that tries to highlight the story of a company “harmed” by Google’s market power. In this case, it’s the story of a guy who runs a directory site that was based entirely on Google arbitrage. He bought ads on Google’s search engine to drive people to his directory page, and then littered the page with AdSense to collect revenue from people clicking through. The NY Times presents this as being somewhat harmful, but I have to side with Jeff Jarvis who doesn’t see what Google did wrong.

Google arbitrage sites are a problem for the end user. They’re based on the simple concept of forcing people to go an extra click to siphon some money away. If I’m looking for a particular site on Google I don’t first want to go to a directory — I want to go directly to the site. That’s true for many, many users — and Google’s efforts in punishing arbitrage sites isn’t anticompetitive, it’s about improving the user experience, which is something that should be praised, not sued. The only problem noticed in the scenario was that the guy chose a bad business model, where he was totally reliant on a single company for both all of his traffic and all of his revenue. He made the decision to base his entire business on a single supplier, and that supplier has every right to change the terms of its deals in an effort to make a better consumer experience. This isn’t Google being anticompetitive — it’s Google serving its customers.

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As you probably heard, Friday afternoon there was a tragic train crash in California, killing a bunch of people. There were some rumors going around over the weekend, and now the press is picking up on a report that the engineer of the Metrolink train that missed a signal leading to the crash may have been text-messaging with someone moments before the accident. It’s the type of story that the press loves, though there’s not that much evidence other than the claims of the kid on the other end of the text messages. Just as politicians are now pushing through “driving-while-texting” bans, you have to imagine that this will also help push along those initiatives. But, once again, the same issue comes through. The problem isn’t text messaging: it’s people in control over big, powerful machines (cars or trains) not paying attention the way they’re supposed to be paying attention.

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We try to avoid most of the gadget destruction videos because, well, most of them are crap and we kinda like gadgets. Even the old ones that don’t really work anymore and take up space in the corner gathering dust and spiders.

The above one though is almost arty in the way that this owner despatches a dead MacBook Pro. We even have a soulful piano score to accompany the slo-mo destruction of what was once a well-loved companion. Maybe be this could be the new Microsoft ad.

Just this week, we pointed to a rather graphic demonstration of how easy it is to hack an election using Sequoia’s e-voting machines. Sequoia’s machines have been implicated in numerous problematic elections, such as vote totals in New Jersey that don’t add up properly, or the discovery that with a little effort you can vote multiple times on some Sequoia machines. And, of course, Sequoia’s usual response to these sorts of things is to deny any and all responsibility and maybe even threaten to sue those who discover the problems.

Well, here they go again. In a Washington DC primary election that used Sequoia’s machines, election officials are trying to deal with the fact that the machines seem to have added thousands of votes for a non-existent write-in candidate. The election board is blaming a “faulty cartridge” (though no one seems to know what that means, exactly). Sequoia, however, denies a faulty cartridge or a faulty database and says that it must be human error or maybe “static discharge.” You would think that a company like Sequoia would be quite concerned that its machines could change the course of democracy based on static discharge or basic human error, but it seems more concerned with avoiding any blame:

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the database,” said Michelle Shafer, spokeswoman for California-based Sequoia Voting Systems. “There’s absolutely no problem with the machines in the polling places. No. No.”

There. Now, doesn’t that make you feel oh-so-confident in the ability of these machines to conduct a free and fair democratic election for President this November?

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The way we communicate with each other keeps changing. Once, we relied on letters, telephones and fax machines but now we prefer speedier and sometimes less intrusive forms of communication like email or instant messenger. Even more popular, however, and a phenomenon of communication experienced worldwide, is sending SMS text messages to each other via [...]

Back in July we wrote about our surprise at the fact that the Graduate Management Admission Council, who creates the GMAT test used as part of the admissions process for many business schools, had won a copyright infringement lawsuit against a test prep website. There are plenty of test prep operations out there, but GMAC’s complaint here was that some of the users of the site were posting questions used on the exam that they had remembered. It’s difficult to see why this is a particularly big deal. Most test prep consists of looking at old tests or samples questions and practicing on them. The fact that some live questions might also make it into the mix seems hardly likely to make much of a significant difference (and, if anything, suggests GMAC might want to have a much larger pool of questions to avoid this issue). It’s also questionable whether it’s infringement to repeat a single test question.

Furthermore, it’s not clear why the website in question, Scoretop, should be held responsible for the actions of its users. You would think that it would be somewhat protected by the DMCA’s safe harbors. However, GMAC not only won the copyright infringement lawsuit, but was also given access to Scoretop’s logs. That seems ridiculous, and an invasion of the privacy of those who were simply signing up to do some test prep. And, now, to top it all off, GMAC has canceled the GMAT scores of 84 individuals who used the site and notified all the schools to which the scores had been sent.

Hopefully, the schools recognize that GMAC is overreacting and choose not to rescind any admissions — but I’m sure some will probably do so. This seems pretty extreme for folks who were engaged in pretty standard test preparation. They weren’t “stealing” the exam or anything, but among tons of other test prep questions, would get to see some “live” questions that might possibly show up on the exam. All around this seems like a highly questionable decision, both from the legal standpoint, and then GMAC’s followup reaction.

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Proxies let the users surf the website from blocked location like a school, university library or an organization. They keep you safe and secure by maintaining your privacy. In simple words, the proxy servers hide your identity and access blocked websites on your behalf. On the web network, there are a lot of websites which [...]

My laptop has started to show steady data input and output as soon as it connects to the web via a wireless router. This continues for as long as I leave the machine connected. AVG 8, Ad-Aware and Spybot have revealed nothing.
Robert Caldicott

You are right to be concerned because the unknown data traffic could be spam or worse, if your PC has been hacked. However, the most likely cause is Microsoft’s Windows Update, which dribbles away in the background so as not to interfere with normal usage. Otherwise, your firewall should tell you which applications have your permission to access the internet, and which ones are active. Active processes should also be visible in the Windows Task Manager or the superior Process Explorer, a free download. In your case, the culprit may be setupxv.exe, which could be malware or fake anti-spyware.

The web is another common source of unknown data traffic. Some pages refresh adverts or update their contents periodically without telling you, but this should stop if you close down all browsers.

If you can’t see what’s sending traffic, you can try using a packet sniffer to capture and examine the data being transferred. Sadly, I use Wireshark (wireshark.org), which is not a simple option for beginners. There are alternatives listed at sectools.org and SnapFiles. SmartSniff looks easier to use. Other suggestions welcome!

Going on 64-bit

I recently bought a new quad-core desktop machine, but I am considering increasing the amount of Ram from the 3GB now installed. Would I have to upgrade to the 64-bit version to increase my memory? I want to use my PC for gaming, but I have a fondness for my back catalogue of games.

Jez Robinson

JS: As you know, 32-bit Windows can only use 4GB of memory, which means about 3.25GB after you’ve allowed for graphics and system use. The 64-bit versions can access more memory than your motherboard can support. However, the upgrade path from your 32-bit Packard Bell version is not smooth. Although Microsoft sells “in place upgrades” (hence the 15GB of disk space devoted to Vista), you can’t upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit Vista without reinstalling it as a new operating system.

Also, you will have to pay for your new operating system. If you buy a boxed copy of Vista, you can run either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version, so the upgrade is free. (There may be a charge for shipping you a new disc: only Vista Ultimate includes media for both.) But if you have a manufacturer’s pre-installed version, what you’ve bought is all you get. Unless Packard Bell can offer you a deal, you may have to pay £70 or more for a retail or upgrade version. See Microsoft’s guide at bit.ly/aj0023

Whether it’s worth it is a difficult question, but gamers were among the first to move to 64-bit Vista so you should be able to check for compatibility and performance of specific games online. In general, 64-bit Vista is faster and more secure, it runs 32-bit software, and cheap Ram means sales are now growing rapidly. However, it does not run old 16-bit software, and that unfortunately includes 32-bit programs with 16-bit installation routines. Two obvious solutions are to set up your PC as a dual-boot system, so you can switch between versions, or to install 32-bit Vista in a “virtual PC”. There are several free virtual PC programs including Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, VMware and VirtualBox (version 1.6.2 or later). There are lots of demos and tutorials on YouTube.

Office upgrade

I have Microsoft Office Professional 2000 and would like to know the cheapest legal way of upgrading to Office Professional 2007. I am not a student.

Bob Baker

JS: Microsoft’s website says you can upgrade to Office Pro from Microsoft Works 6.0-10 or any 2000-2007 Microsoft Office program or suite except Office XP Student and Teacher (bit.ly/aj0028). You could therefore shop around for the Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Edition (Upgrade), which you can install on two computers - normally your desktop and your laptop. A slightly cheaper option is the OEM version coded MSOEM162. This is designed for original equipment manufacturers and PC system builders to sell with machines, and can only be installed on one PC. It is not necessarily suitable for consumers, bearing in mind that the OEM (in this case, you) also has to provide the support. OEM versions of software may also come without boxes, manuals, or even discs.

Positively not Adobe

I need to update Adobe Acrobat/Reader to read bulletins, but my attempt to download version 9 has been blocked because AVG Anti-virus (Free Edition 8.0.169) has detected Trojan horse Generic11.PWW.

Cyril Braganza

JS: Adobe says AVG has acknowledged that this is a “false positive” and it will be fixed in an update: bit.ly/aj0027. Avast is also correcting a false positive.

Unknown data in and out

My laptop has started to show steady data input and output as soon as it connects to the web via a wireless router. This continues for as long as I leave the machine connected. AVG 8, Ad-Aware and Spybot have revealed nothing.

Robert Caldicott

JS: You are right to be concerned because the unknown data traffic could be spam or worse, if your PC has been hacked. However, the most likely cause is Microsoft’s Windows Update, which dribbles away in the background so as not to interfere with normal usage. Otherwise, your firewall should tell you which applications have your permission to access the internet, and which ones are active. Active processes should also be visible in the Windows Task Manager or the superior Process Explorer, a free download (bit.ly/aj0029). In your case, the culprit may be setupxv.exe, which could be malware or fake anti-spyware (bit.ly/aj0030).

The web is another common source of unknown data traffic. Some pages refresh adverts or update their contents periodically without telling you, but this should stop if you close down all browsers.

If you can’t see what’s sending traffic, you can try using a packet sniffer to capture and examine the data being transferred. Sadly, I use Wireshark (wireshark.org), which is not a simple option for beginners. There are alternatives listed at bit.ly/aj0031 and bit.ly/aj0032. SmartSniff looks easier to use (bit.ly/aj0033).

Automatic backup

Is there an external hard drive that is really automatic?

Michael Abraham

JS: Clickfree external hard drives are promoted as offering the “first out-of-the-box automatic backup” and can handle up to 10 PCs. I’ve not used one, but the 160GB model was warmly recommended by a reader who bought it from QVC.

Backchat

· Chris Berg wanted to help donate a computer to a village that has no electricity, and I suggested Aleutia (aleutia.com/). GreenNet, an ethical not-for-profit ISP based in London, says: “We work closely with Mike Rosenberg and are Aleutia’s official reseller to the charity and not-for-profit sector. If you could put Chris Berg in touch with us, we’d be happy to give him some more information and tailor a solution to his needs.” See gn.apc.org

Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@guardian.co.uk

While computers are now an important part of the lives of human beings, there was a time where computers did not exist. Knowing the history of computers and how much progression has been made can help you understand just how complicated and innovative the creation of computers really is.
Unlike most devices, the computer is one [...]