Posts by happygeek

Welcome aboard, computer gal :)

Have not tried it yet, but would use of an underscore work? So Windows 7 becomes Windows_7

I think that it needs time to settle. The whole idea of such a voting system is that it employs the 'wisdom of crowds' and as such we can only see if it is actually working or not over time.

The concept is certainly sound enough, and has been successfully employed at many sites. If it works here or not, well we cannot tell yet, but Dani gets my full support for being bold enough to keep trying new ideas at DaniWeb rather than being happy with a static approach to site design.

It would appear that a political activist from New York has been arrested by the FBI in connection with helping orchestrate G20 summit protesters in Pittsburgh. According to The Guardian the man, Eliot Madison from Queens, has been charged with hindering prosecution after helping G20 protesters evade police by using Twitter.

Along with another man, Madison is said to have been tracked by law enforcement agents to a motel room during the summt, where he was found in front of a row of laptops and emergency frequency radio scanners.

The official police documents say that both men were using Twitter in order to "inform the protesters and groups of the movements and actions" of law enforcement during the protests. Of course, it should come as no surprise that Twitter is being used to help organise political protest if, indeed, that were the case in this instance. After all, people Tweeting have a proud and proven track record of providing information during all kinds of political disturbances around the world.

When it is someone using Twitter to report on the movements of police during a rebellion in a hostile nation then it is positively encouraged by the US authorities. However, it appears that when the political unrest is nearer to home (well, right inside the house, as it were) then US authorities are less accommodating of the democracy afforded by such real-time micro-blogging.

During the G20 summit the police were seen to be openly monitoring …

No, but I kinda wish my name was Drew and I had joined Twitter a couple of years back :)

Don't forget netbooks, increasingly popular with the tech savvy user :)

Yep, welcome back! :)

Using newly registered domains with a very short lifespan to host malware websites is so last year. It would appear that these days such things are far more likely to be hosted on much older compromised web sites instead. Could this be down to a decline in domain tasting?

The latest MessageLabs Intelligence report appears to think so, suggesting that the previously widespread practise of cancelling a new domain registration within a few days 'cooling off' period has been in decline recently. Indeed, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers stated as much in June. The MessageLabs analysis of those websites which had been established purely to deliver malware showed that those domains classified as young, registered within three months of being blocked for hosting malicious content, are now relatively small in number. Mainly because they are discovered and taken down within the first 38 days of registration in 90% of cases. When it came to older domains that had been registered for more than three months and then compromised for malware service, MessageLabs discovered that they have a much longer shelf life: 90% are taken down after 138 days. Overall, 80% of sites blocked for serving up malware are established legitimate sites which have been compromised.

"It is not surprising that with a small window of opportunity for younger domains, the attackers register domains much faster" Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec says "suggesting that attackers are working very hard to set up …

Bletchley Park, the top secret code breaking hub that played a pivotal role in the outcome of World War Two, has finally been awarded development funding of some £460,500 ($735,500) from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The money will literally save the place the saved the lives of countless people by shortening World War two by at least two years. With the money, the Bletchley Park Trust will be able to start plans for transforming Bletchley Park itself into a world class heritage and educational centre. The Trust now has a further two years in which to finalise the plans before submitting them to the HLF in order to raise a further £4.1 million ($6.5 million) of the total £10 million ($15.9 million) needed for the project.

One very vocal supporter of Bletchley Park, the renowned actor, author and Twitterer Stephen Fry could hardly contain his joy: "the news that Bletchley Park has the initial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund is simply wonderful" Fry enthused, adding "and yet, what should the Heritage Lottery Fund do if not exactly this? As each year passes it is becoming clearer and clearer just how vital a role in winning the war Bletchley played".

It has been a good month for code breaker fans. Just a couple of weeks ago the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, apologised for the prosecution and persecution of Alan Turing which ended up killing the man who led the technological fight against …

When singer Lily Allen posted a passionate plea for people to stop illegally sharing music files, and started a dedicated blog where fellow pop stars could voice their concerns over the 'theft' of their work, you might have been forgiven for thinking it would just turn into the usual bunch of rich kids moaning about how unfair it was that they couldn't buy a second Ferrari this year. However, it quickly got much more interesting than that, thanks to a large dose of double standards on the part of Allen herself.

The trouble with setting yourself up as some kind of industry spokesperson when the debate is as explosive as the music sharing one, and proffering support for a three strikes and you are out law, is that you have to be pretty damn sure of your position. While there is certainly a goodly amount of honesty, passion and common sense in what Allen says on the subject all of that pretty much disappeared up the wazoo, hidden by a smokescreen of her own making. Allen lit the match by seeming to forget that copyright and intellectual property rights apply outside of the glitzy music business. It would appear that the 'It’s Not Alright' blogger rather unfortunately posted a message to kick the whole debate off which, while explaining that copyright infringement is a bad thing, itself infringed the copyright of the person who had actually written most of it and the news site where the cut …

The posts in question were deleted after being flagged as bad by other DaniWeb members. Upon investigation it turned out that not only did they have no bearing upon the thread/topic/forum in which they were posted but they also expressed a general hatred of Turkish people.

DaniWeb is a global community, where members of all races and nationalities are welcome. We do not tolerate postings which might cause offence to members based upon race, sex or religion.

Now I am sorry that some people seem to think that such postings are OK and should not be deleted, but our community would be a very unhappy place indeed if everyone was able to post messages of hatred and intolerance with impunity.

If you have something that you consider is worthy of news story status then you can post it to the Upcoming News Stories forum, where it will be reviewed by myself. A PM to me to let me know doesn't hurt either, just in case I'm having a bad day :)

If it is a well written and relevant news story then I will change the posting status to that of a news story and move it to the most appropriate forum - if there isn't one then it stays in the upcoming forum but flagged as news.

Only DaniWeb Staff Writers have the ability to flag postings as news stories or product reviews from the outset.

This just in from TomTom:

London, 24 September 2009 – TomTom announces today that the TomTom car kit for the iPhone will have a recommended retail price of £99.99

The TomTom car kit will be available this October and will be sold separately from the TomTom app. It will be compatible with the iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS.

All further details on the car kit will be made available soon.

Nice to know there are still some PC manufacturers out there who care about customer retention, or their customers for that matter.

There ain't no such thing as a free Windows 7 upgrade. At least that's what it is starting to look like for the majority of people, despite the 'free upgrade' vouchers that are being handed out with new computers as part of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option scheme. A scheme which has been introduced to stop the huge dip in PC sales during the period before a new Windows OS ends up being a standard feature that would otherwise occur.

According to research carried out by PC Pro magazine in the UK, PC manufacturers are charging their customers in order to redeem free upgrade vouchers.

Just how much they are charging customers for the privilege of a free upgrade varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the voucher processing fee can be as high as £27.90 ($45) in some cases. That's how much PC Pro revealed was being charged by Toshiba in order to send out the upgrade OS discs. Dell was keeping quiet and refused to say how much it was going to be charging for shipping and handling, however HP, Lenovo and Sony customers can all expect to have to find around £20 ($32.50) for the discs. Just to make matters worse, Microsoft recently announced it would make the full version of Windows 7 Professional available to students in the UK for just £30 ($40).

Of course, nobody is denying that there is a cost to providing Windows 7 upgrade OS discs. Media reproduction …

Hi Phil, welcome to the DaniWeb community. We are growing fast, but hopefully remain friendly enough to keep you coming back :)

It has long been affectionately known as the Jesus Phone because of the almost religious following it receives, but can the iPhone really harness the power of the Cosmos to help organise your life? Veteran TV presenter Noel Edmonds, he of Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old and Noel's Christmas Presents fame reckons it can.

Indeed, Edmonds already created something of a fuss about the new age concept of Cosmic Ordering after taking to drawing different symbols on his hand for each show in the Deal or No Deal TV programme. The show became hugely popular here in the UK, catapulting the former-star back into the media limelight after having been largely off the small screen for some years. There was plenty of speculation about the images drawn on his hands, but they were eventually revealed to be part of the whole Cosmic Ordering thing which seems to involve making requests of the Cosmos which are then granted for those who adopt a positive attitude to life.

Positive Apps, the developers of the Noel Edmonds' Cosmic Ordering iPhone App, are keen to point out that "Cosmic Ordering is not a whacky form of prayer" and that they cannot "actually prove that it exists" however they also insist that it "can change your life forever".

Noel Edmonds says, in the blurb for the software at the iPhone App Store, that "Cosmic Ordering has over the past 4 years …

He's doing it all over the place, copying bits of other replies in the thread just to promote his sig links. In other words, he's a spammer.

Hmmm. Should they not have looked at 1500 straight guys and 1500 gay/bi guys in order to get more accurate results here - rather than base the 'gay men have proportionately more gay friends ' assumption on such a very small sample size of 54 against 1544 straight men? Please note that I am not a statistician (can't even say the word properly!) so this is posed as a question rather than a statement of fact.

When a complaining consumer starts topping the Google search rankings for your company, perhaps it is time to start taking them seriously?

Who says that blogging is a waste of time? Not me, but then I've been blogging for a while now, admittedly in a professional capacity as a technology journalist rather than the perhaps more usual rant and ramble personal way. Andrew Sharman did the rant thing recently, and oh boy is he glad he did. It seems to have led to him getting a pretty hefty refund from a tour operator after a particularly poor vacation experience in Tunisia.

Sharman sent a letter of complaint to the tour operator, a 10 page letter of complaint no less, but after six weeks had only got the normal thanks for your complaint acknowledgement and nothing appeared to be getting done. So the web developer decided to blog about it.

I've just been reading Andrew Sharman's blog in which he describes at some length just how awful his holiday trip to Tunisia, booked via Thomson holidays, actually was. Under the heading of 'Thomson trip to Tunisia, staying in Marhaba Palace Review' Sharman describes how Tunisia itself is a nice place, but recounts the bad experience he had booking his vacation and actually taking it. He mentions how he was promised a double bed but ended up in a hotel without any double beds at all, how he was told the hotel was popular with his age …

Yep, tell us what - specifically - you are having trouble with and we can move this to the correct forum where someone might be able to help you with it.

One third of businesses totally fail to encrypt their sensitive data transfers. That's the conclusion of a new survey into file transfer security which noted the huge disparities in attitudes towards data security in general and data security during transfer. According to the 2009 File Transfer Security Survey undertaken by managed file transfer solutions developer Ipswitch, while some 82% of organisations engage in the exchange of sensitive data only 64% actually encrypt that data either when it is at rest or being transferred.

Within the engineering and heavy industry sectors only 54% of respondents reported encrypting sensitive data as part of their secure data transfer strategy, whereas when it came to health, education and government services the numbers improved to 69%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the IT sector did better with 70% of respondents encrypting data, but not as good as professional services on 74% or the big daddy of secure data transfer which was financial services on 77.5% - although this is largely down to the presence of explicit and demanding regulations to ensure financial data is safe.

Based upon responses from more than 300 businesses ranging from media organisations, law and accountancy firms through to national and local government, schools, hospitals banks, consultants and retailers, other key findings of the report included:

• 22% of businesses in financial services do not encrypt data transfers
  
• 16% are still not confident that their arrangement for transferring large files is secure
  
• Over a third of respondents cite secure …

According to a new report, published today by SANS, the overwhelming majority of all cyber-security risks can be laid at the door of just two areas: unpatched client-side software and vulnerable Internet facing web sites.

The report was compiled by Rohit Dhamankar, Mike Dausin, Marc Eisenbarth and James King of TippingPoint with assistance from Wolfgang Kandek of Qualys, Johannes Ullrich of the Internet Storm Center, and Ed Skoudis and Rob Lee of the SANS Institute faculty. But, to be fair, I'm not sure that attack data from systems protecting 6000 organisations and vulnerability data from 9,000,000 systems was really needed to arrive at its conclusion.

You only need to keep an eye on the news to realise that unpatched software is being targeted by the spear phishers and bad guys, with client-side vulnerabilities in the likes of Adobe software hitting the headlines this year and last.

The SANS 'Top Cyber Security Risks' report says that it represents "the primary initial infection vector used to compromise computers that have Internet access." What is interesting is the report finding that, on average, major organisations will take at least twice as long to patch these client-side software vulnerabilities as they do to patch operating system vulnerabilities. As SANS puts it "the highest priority risk is getting less attention than the lower priority risk."

And talking of priority risks, the number two according to the report would be vulnerable web sites. SANS …

It's the scareware angle that worries me, you just know that's going to catch so many unsuspecting folks out.

If it wasn't bad enough that someone is filing for a trademark to cover an adult-oriented games console called a SexBox, the world's largest adult entertainment company is seeking approval from Sony to turn its entertainment console into a PornStation 3.

Silican Xtal Corp, a San Jose based integrated circuit manufacturing company, has filed a trademark claim with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a SexBox. The filing refers to a "Video Gaming System Console comprised of computer hardware with unique user controls which plays interactive Adult Only rated video game software titles." I cannot imagine that the Microsoft lawyers will be taking this one laying down, considering how close to an Xbox a SexBox sounds. Indeed, the filing itself even talks about playing these adult content games through interactive adult communities and multiplayer online games. Considering that Microsoft does not allow such adults only content games, and we are not referring to 18 rated violent games but rather ones with a very explicit sexual content, you have to imagine it will fight this one all the way. If successful it could bring a whole new meaning to Red Rings of Death I guess.

Meanwhile, the largest adult entertainment (that's porn to you and me) company in the world, Vivid Entertainment, is apparently trying to convince Sony to allow porn content to be made available on the PS3. In an interview, Vivid boss Steve Hirsch argues that as long as "age …

Remember Conficker, the virulent worm which caused such havoc at the start of the year? No, well maybe news headlines such as 'Virus sinks Royal Navy fleet comms' and 'Windows worm infects millions' might help jog your memory. Well hold onto your hats people, Conficker is back. And this time it comes with a new twist.

According to security specialists BitDefender the worm has not turned, but returned. Looking at the e-threat statistical report the company produces, I could hardly believe my eyes: sitting ugly on top of the most infected by charts was Conficker. In fact, of all the infected machines that BitDefender looked into during the month of August, Conficker (a.k.a Win32.Worm.Downadup) was sitting there staring back at them on a really quite staggering 43% of them. That puts it way out in front of other malware threats, with the second most prevalent infection (an Embarcadero Delphi built code injector called Win32.Induc.A) mustering a relatively meagre 15% share.

The latest Conficker variant has some new tricks up its virtual sleeve, such as not only being able to prevent access to IT security vendor websites as it always has but adding the installation of rogue security software onto the compromised machine. Highly profitable scareware scams have hit the headlines here at DaniWeb before, and Microsoft has had some success in hunting down the offenders. But the fact that Conficker is blocking access to legit software sites and leaving the …

Disagree regarding the remasters launch nullifying my points, they all remain valid: the music buyers are still being ripped off, most (all?) of the tracks which have been made available in remastered form are already available in what most people will accept is perfectly acceptable quality recordings. It has nothing to do with giving the fans what they want and everything to do with screwing every last buck out of them.

The reason there was no Beatles announcement at the Apple event tonight is that the record companies suck elephants through a straw. Simples :)

All the news and social media feeds seem to have overdosed on one story this week: will The Beatles be on iTunes after the big Apple 'Rock and Roll' event today? News at eleven: I don't give a stuff, and here's my top ten reasons why.

1. Most people would rather have an iPod with a camera than an iPod with The Beatles.
   
2. Reality check: the only people who are really getting their knickers in a knot over the possibility of Beatles music on iTunes, unfortunately, would be we the media.
   
3. The Beatles are not, and I'm really sorry to have to break this to the fans out there, I repeat not the biggest/best/hottest band on the planet. The hard truth of the matter is that in 2009 The Beatles are simply not relevant, in music terms.
   
4. If I wanted Beatles music on my iPod I would have copied tracks off the over priced Beatles box set CDs I had bought (I don't, and I have not bought a box set, but plenty do and have) rather than be stupid enough to pay twice for the same music.
   
5. If the record companies really cared about music fans, also known as their customers, they would have made the Beatles back catalogue available in digital format a long time ago. They have not, ipso facto they don't give a stuff about us so why should we give a stuff about them. Even if there was an announcement at …

It's good news for those in the security business, according to Gartner at least. It is predicting that security software and services spending will outpace other IT spending areas in 2010. The Gartner report suggests that security software budgets will grow by approximately 4% in 2010, while security services budgets will grow almost 3%.

Earlier this year Gartner surveyed more than 1,000 IT professionals with budget responsibility worldwide to determine their budget-planning expectations for 2010 and the results form the basis of this new report.

"In the current highly uncertain economic environment, with overall IT budgets shrinking, even the modest spending increases indicated by the survey shows that security spending accounts for a higher percentage of the IT budget," said Adam Hils, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Security decision makers should work to allocate limited budgets based on enterprise-specific security needs and risk assessments."

Specific areas of projected security-related software spending growth in 2010 includes security information and event management (SIEM), e-mail security, URL filtering, and user provisioning. The continued, comparatively strong emphasis on security extends beyond software. The survey showed that security services spending will also outpace spending in other services areas, with budgets expected to grow 2.74 per cent in 2010. This anticipated increase is being driven in part by a growing movement towards managed security services, cloud-based e-mail/web security solutions, and third-party compliance-related consulting and vulnerability audits and scans.

"When evaluating and planning 2010 security budgets, organisations should work to achieve …

I use mine. The klaxon sound wakes me up, my wife up, the kids up, the cats up...

Looks like TomTom is having problems with the car kit for this, as it has now said it won't be out for the summer but will be October instead. If all was well, and the thing was working 100%, you can bet your bottom dollar it would not only be on sale now but would have been released at the same time as the iPhone app. Especially as there is talk of a Navigon car kit being released real soon now.

Deffo speedier here. Nice.

Display bug (Firefox) - When looking at my inbox, the folder controls panel overlaps/sits on top of the favorite forums list and the latest posts/features lists overlap the inbox contents index.

I drive hundreds of miles every week, I write about technology for a living, I've been a TomTom user for years and I own an iPhone. It had to be done, I just had to review the TomTom satnav app for the iPhone.

Being both an iPhone 3GS owner and a happy TomTom satnav in-car user, like many people I had been waiting for the iPhone TomTom application to arrive. The delays seemed to go on forever, and in the meantime other players had entered the market: both Navigon MobileNavigator and ALK CoPilot Live launched before TomTom got into the App Store. But first is not always best, and as TomTom is pretty much the undisputed market leader I decided to hold out and wait for it to finally arrive. Not that it has finally arrived as I was hoping, by which I mean that the software application itself is now in the iPhone App Store for download but the hardware side of the product has yet to be released to retailers. I asked TomTom about this lack of the car kit at the moment, and a spokesperson told me it is "in the process of fine-tuning it so it lives up to the standards and quality we set for our products, and plan to announce the availability and pricing later this summer." Apparently a commercial decision was taken to make the software available despite the car kit not being ready just yet. "Although using the two together will …

Most people welcomed the news that the Sony PlayStation 3 was slimming down, both in physical size and in terms of off the shelf pricing. The Linux crowd are not so impressed however.

According to SCE president and CEO Kazuo Hirai, the PS3 slim is some 36 percent lighter and 32 percent smaller than the original PS3 but retains the Blu-ray player along with a 120GB hard drive. What it has got rid of, according to reports, is the option to run Linux under an Install Other OS option that is available on the fat PS3.

Who cares, you might be thinking. After all, it's just a games console and the number of users who will be fiddling with the thing to install any kind of Linux on to it has to be fairly small in the scheme of things. Well, yes, maybe. But the small number of researchers who have been using the PS3 Cell processor by running Linux and creating PS3 clusters to further their research on a budget will see it as a big loss.

A (since deleted) forum post on an official Sony PlayStation website stated:

"In order to offer the OtherOS install, SCE would need to continue to maintain the OtherOS hypervisor drivers for any significant hardware changes - this costs SCE. One of our key objectives with the new model is to pass on cost savings to the consumer with a lower retail price. …

What do you wake up to? An old-fashioned alarm clock with small hammer and large bells atop a round clockface? Maybe a clock-radio or perhaps a straightforward digital alarm with a loud beep-beep-beep to get you moving of a morning? If you do, then you are in the minority as more and more of us apparently wake up to our mobile phones.

According to one new survey which questioned 1500 people regarding their morning bedroom routine, more than half used their mobile phones as alarm clocks.

One leading horologist and fellow of the British Horological Institute told the Daily Mail newspaper that the trend has already been seen with people using mobiles instead of wristwatches, and how it signals modern technology replacing mechanical things.

So what else is the mobile phone replacing? Well the same survey, unsurprisingly conducted for a mobile phone retailer, suggests that 20% of us use them to access the Internet, take photos, organise business schedules and keep on top of social networking.

I have to admit that it never actually occurred to me that I had replaced my alarm clock with an iPhone, but I have. In fact I have not used a 'proper' alarm clock since I first took delivery of the iPhone, it sits on my bedside cabinet acting as a handy one-tap illuminated clock for those middle of the night stumbles to the loo, and as a very effective alarm clock in the morning. I …

I'm not a great fan of the phrase 'total coincidence' and nor am I a fan of The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and Lord President of the Council to be formal.

While I'm on the small matter of things I don't like, I'm not exactly standing cheering on the sidelines when a recording or movie industry executive bemoans modern technology for stripping them of some of their profit from the sale of music or film.

So you can probably guess I was none too pleased to learn that the UK Government has done something of a 180 degree about turn of thinking when it comes to dealing with entertainment industry piracy on the Internet. The proposed draconian new powers include forcing Internet Service Providers to suspend or block the accounts of persistent downloaders. Oddly enough, this exact same suggestion was rejected just a couple of months ago in the much awaited Digital Britain report, which was published by none other than the UK Government itself.

Of course, the turnaround could have nothing to do with Peter Mandelson having dinner with David Geffen, a well known Hollywood media mogul, at a villa in Corfu belong to Nat Rothschild could it? Absolutely not, according to a Government spokesperson who said "I believe they had dinner, but they absolutely didn't discuss any peer-to-peer file-sharing."

Believe what you will, but understand this: many Internet …

The Sophos/Jacobs argument is "The problem is that Microsoft are not providing management around the XP mode virtual machine (VM). This creates the potential for a security disaster. XP mode is an independent Windows instance, that shares the odd folder and device with the host Windows 7 installation. What it doesn't share is processes and memory. So it doesn't share security settings, security software, patches etc. It does not inherit any security from the host."

It's always fun to stand and watch as two big names slug it out, and they don't come much bigger than Microsoft. Sophos, it has to be said, is no small fry either when it comes to the world of IT Security. So when a Sophos blog posting from it's Chief Technology Office, Richard Jacobs, started with the playground taunt equivalent of 'I've been kissing your mum' by saying "Windows 7's planned XP compatibility mode risks undoing much of the progress that Microsoft has made on the security front in the last few years and reveals the true colours of the OS giant" you kind of new things would get nasty, and quick. Jacobs continued his verbal assault on Microsoft and Windows 7 by adding "XP mode reminds us all that security will never be Microsoft's first priority. They'll do enough security to ensure that security concerns aren't a barrier to sales, but not so much that it gets in the way of progress". Ooh, a little below the belt perhaps?

That's certainly what the Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft in the EMEA region, Roger Halbheer, thought. Halbheer responded with a blog posting entitled 'Why Windows 7 XP Mode makes sense from a security perspective' and argued "I know of companies that have decided to stay with XP and not move to Windows Vista because of concerns over compatibility issues with other applications they run. Their systems no doubt run, but they are depriving themselves …

Don't get me wrong, I'm a great fan of the PS3 but not for the gaming which, when compared to the Xbox 360 is in a totally different league in my opinion. But when it comes to the actual hardware, well, the PS3 wins every time. Not only is it of a far higher quality than the Xbox 360, and if you don't believe me then ask those people who when surveyed revealed the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of 50 percent compared to just 10 percent for the PS3, but it also has Blu-ray. Truth be told, when I first bought the PS3, on the day of release, the Blu-ray player was the deal clincher. You just could not buy a player for anywhere near the asking price, and getting a games console thrown in for free seemed a decent offer. Of course, there was always a slight niggle that I had got it wrong and the HD-DVD would win out and I'd have to invest in an Xbox 360 and add-on player for my DVD's.

Little did I know I would, indeed, end up investing in a 360 but not for the now deceased HD-DVD format support but simply because the games I wanted to play were appearing on the Microsoft platform rather than Sony's.

Of course, many others would appear to have had similar feelings and the PS3 has been struggling to match the Xbox 360, and the Wii, in …

As honeymoon periods go, the Apple customer satisfaction one has lasted a remarkably long time. However, you might be forgiven for thinking that honeymoon is now over, given some headlines I have seen online. Forgiven but, I would maintain, as wrong as wrong can be.

Google might not like Apple very much any more, and the EFF are none too pleased with the company either, but your average punter is more than happy.

Headlines declaring that amongst the top tier PC vendors only Apple has seen a dip in customer satisfaction rates would appear to suggest that all is not well at Chez Apple. However, read behind the strap and get into the meat of the story and you will soon discover that this just simply is not the case.

The attention catching headlines have come about courtesy of a consumer satisfaction survey carried out by the American Society for Quality which looked at customer happiness over the last year. This does, indeed, show that satisfaction rates amongst Apple users have dipped during the second quarter, but only by one point from the previous year. In contrast, neither Dell, HP, Compaq or Acer showed a drop in customer satisfaction.

So, it is bad news for Apple then? Well I doubt they will pleased to have dropped a wee bit, but it really does need to be viewed in the proper perspective which means looking at where Apple sits when compared …

As someone who works within the IT Security space, I have to say that rogueware (also known as scareware) is starting to seriously hack me off. Not that I have ever been conned into purchasing it, I hasten to add, but rather because so many others have and so many people are making rather a lot of money as a result.

Rogueware, which can be loosely defined as any 'fake software solution' which separates unsuspecting users from their cash in order to fix non-existent problems, is increasing by a factor of ten in less than a year according to the chaps at PandaLabs. They have been watching the rogueware phenomenon very closely indeed, and have now published a multi-year study into the proliferation of rogueware into the overall cybercrime economy. The research report, The Business of Rogueware, reveals that:

• Cybercriminals are earning approximately $34 million per month through rogueware attacks
  
• Approximately 35 million computers are newly infected with rogueware each month
  
• Rogueware is now being distributed through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and targeted blackhat SEO attacks
  
• And finally, a confirmation of something that many of us suspected anyway: the majority of these cybercriminals are operating from Eastern Europe

"Rogueware is so popular among cybercriminals primarily because they do not need to steal users’ personal information like passwords or account numbers in order to profit from their victims" said Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director. "By taking advantage of …

I have, in the past, argued that the iPhone is more of a games console that happens to make phone calls than the other way around. I admit that I had my tongue in my cheek when I penned that particular piece, but there is no doubting that the iPhone has become something of a portable gaming platform sensation. Often despite the best efforts of Apple, it seems, to prevent good game ideas from reaching the public.

A friend of mine recently suggested that the iPhone was even a return to the golden age of gaming in as far as it brought affordable fun back into the gaming equation. Well, affordable if you remove the hardware from the equation admittedly. The point being, with games coming free of charge at the App Store, and even the paid for ones starting from as little as 59p ($1)it really does hark back to the glory days of Commodore 64 tapes at pocket money prices.

More importantly, because of the limitations of the format, especially with regards to screen size, processor power (even on the 3GS) and input methods there is a renewed focus on that all important, and seemingly sadly oft overlooked when it comes to next generation consoles, little thing called gameplay.

Popularity in terms of the official App Store top paid for and top free games is as follows:

Paid -

1. Moto X Mayhem (a motorbike riding game)
2. Paper …

Just how much of a geek are you? Do you know who Sergey Brin is? Can you solve a Rubik's Cube, in under five minutes? Do you know the value of Pi beyond 3.14? Would you spend a small fortune to get satnav on your mobile? Or maybe strap a large sucker to your thigh to hold your iPhone in place when sitting down in public?

I did not make that last one up, honest. There really is a company which is marketing an iPhone accessory which is, essentially, just a large sucker cup attached to some velcro which straps around your thigh that you whack your iPhone on to keep it nice and stable when you want to use it sitting down away from a desk or table top.

The Thiphone (yes, that is what it is called) is described as being the 'universal thigh mount' for your iPhone which allows you to write an email and drink a frappuccino at the same time. No, seriously, this is such a geek magnet of an idea that it is exactly the kind of advertising which might just work. The manufacturers even reckon it makes driving safer as you can have your iPhone, controlling your in-car music, out of your hands and on your leg while motoring.

At a cost of $29.95 (£18) there is one thing that the advertising does not mention - you are pretty much guaranteed to look like, well, a …

With the investigation into the death of Michael Jackson still ongoing, and claims over the paternity of Paris Jackson hitting the headlines with the involvement of the chap who rose to fame as Oliver in the film way back when and then plummeted to obscurity, you might think that it would be pretty hard for a technology outfit to get on the Jackson media bandwagon right now. But full marks have to go to web promotion business uSocial for trying anyway.

A press release dropped in my lap this morning which claims that uSocial, which amongst other things promises to provide thousands of Twitter followers in return for bundles of your hard earned cash, had been hired to conduct a "Twitter campaign" on a Michael Jackson account, by "someone in his family" according to uSocial CEO Leon Hill.

"I can't admit that we dealt with Michael Jackson directly" Hill says, adding "it was exciting to say the very least to conduct work with such a big name." uSocial claims that some 25,000 Twitter followers were purchased, although not all delivered as Hill says that the company is still working to fulfill the order.

"For obvious reasons we'll be dealing with his family from here on in, though it would have been great to conduct services for Michael Jackson in a different time, under different circumstances" Hill concludes.

One does have to wonder why anyone would want to buy in 25,000 followers rather than build …

Bob Monkhouse was once best known for hosting Celebrity Squares and Family Fortunes on British television. Then in 2003 he died at the age of 75 and all went quiet. Until now, when it would appear that Bob is back from beyond the grave and posting jokes to Twitter.

It isn't the first time that the comedian has made an unlikely come back since succumbing to prostate cancer in December 2003. A couple of years ago Bob posthumously appeared in a film talking about his death as part of an awareness campaign by the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, courtesy of some rather impressive virtual actor technology which was put to good use.

This time things are a little less complex on the technology front, with the charity simply starting a Twitter account in the name of bob_monkhouse http://www.twitter.com/bob_monkhouse which is posting some of his classic one-liner jokes.

We've seen Intel trying to cure cancer using Facebook, and suggestions that drinking beer might do the trick, but now Twitter is getting in on the act as well.

The idea being that in-between Tweets such as "My wife was yawning so much she went to the doctor. He was baffled, then he realised it was her iron tablets. She had metal fatigue" and "Lucky for me, my wife wasn’t fussy. She once dated a man so ugly, when they went walking in the woods, he found truffles" there's a serious message coming …

Interesting: Co-Pilot satnav has now been released for iPhone 3G/3GS - so that is two that have jumped the gun on TomTom. Pricing for the software only Co-Pilot option is £25.99 ($43.50) and we should have a review up just as soon as we've had a chance to get it tested.

So far, TomTom is the only company that is going down the hardware route, adding what could turn out to be the all important additional GPS reception boost and charging functionality. iPhone users have pretty much defined themselves by not being shy of spending cash, they have iPhones for a start, and this is especially true as far as the new 3GS is concerned - so have TomTom got it right by going for the full monty kit and not worrying too much about the perceived value for money equation? Time will tell, and so will DaniWeb just as soon as we get our hands on a review unit!

Here's the latest from a TomTom spokesperson:

"As we have not confirmed pricing for the iphone app, we are unsure why this website is quoting that price. It will shortly be removing the information."

How much for an iPhone-powered TomTom satnav? That's the question that has been on the lips of many an iPhone user ever since TomTom announced it was developing a version of the market leading turn-by-turn satellite navigation system especially for the iPhone. Now, it seems, we are a little closer to knowing the answer. I just hope you are sitting down before I reveal it.

According to one online retailer which has broken ranks and gone public with pre-order pricing, if you want an iPhone-powered TomTom satnav in your car it will cost you a cool £113.85 ($193.75) which works out to £99 ($168.50) plus tax. Which is not, by a long shot, the most expensive iPhone app.

Now before you reel too far back in absolute horror, that isn't the cost of the maps and satnav software alone. In fact it's the price for an in-car kit which includes the software (with the latest Tele Atlas mapping and the TomTom IQ Routes feature) plus a specially designed, and I have to admit rather sexy looking, cradle which provides secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, voice instruction sound boost, hands-free telephone calling and in-situ charging of your iPhone.

In fact, a quick scout around the same site that has published that pre-ordering price is selling the cheapest standalone TomTom in-car unit for £118 ($200) which means that the iPhone version is actually cheaper, assuming you already own an iPhone 3GS that is.

Currently …

Now if you had invested in an Apple iPod Touch and it, well, exploded after you dropped it you probably would not be too happy about. You probably would contact Apple and explain what had happened, and you might be happy to accept a refund. But what if that refund came tied to a signed settlement agreement which legally bound you not to mention what had happened to anyone?

That's what one unhappy chap is claiming happened after the iTouch he bought for his 11 year old daughter went up in flames. Apparently he dropped it, it then started hissing and then he saw what he describes as 'vapour' coming from the device so he chucking it on the floor. 30 seconds later it went up with a bang, and ended being thrown some 10 feet into the air according to reports. This is not thew first time an Apple mobile device has become hot stuff of course.

It would appear that after talking to Apple on the telephone, the man was sent a standard 'deny liability but have your money back anyway' letter which he refused to sign as it also required him and his daughter not to talk about the exploding iTouch to anyone or Apple would seek damages through the courts.

Charming, I am sure.

Apple has declined to comment further on the story at this point in time. Mind you, it probably has other things on its mind …