Geek Drivel

I’m on the phone now to Dell, trying to find out about the technician who’s supposed to be here today. Dell’s website is useless; I received an e-mail giving me explicit instructions for getting a status update from it, but when I jump through all the hoops, all it says is “Error retrieving results. Please try again later.” Same as last time.

On the other hand, their XPS technical support is superb. I’ve never had to wait to talk to someone, the few times I’ve had to call — I just enter the “express service code” from the sticker on the bottom of my machine and I’m connected directly to someone with both the knowledge and the resources to help. That’s a VERY refreshing change from most computer companies I’ve dealt with.

It looks like the part was delivered to the local guys this morning. He gave me a contact number for them… they say that I should receive a call within the next hour, and if I don’t, that I should call this same guy and he’ll “escalate the issue.”

I love dealing with truly professional companies. It was well worth the extra money I paid for this XPS machine. But I really can’t wait any longer, so I’m going to pull the hard drive out and put it in an external case I’ve got, so I can access the information on it. Even if I can’t compile much on Mini-mEee, at least I can get to the source code.

For those uber-geeks who are still following the ridiculous SCO-versus-Novell lawsuit, it looks like the end is (finally!) near: in a stunningly apropos reversal, SCO (which instigated the lawsuit) has been ordered to pay Novell for violating their rights. They probably won’t have the money, but it’s a moral victory, at least.

Two of my favorite targets in a single (and pretty good) article — bonus!

I’ve been saying since April or so that Apple really wanted to avoid going to court over Psystar (the Hackintosh maker) because it would open up a huge can of legal worms for Apple, but apparently most legal people think that Apple will win the case without even trying. This post gives some good reasons why my take on it (which is presumably also Apple’s) has some merit.

The collective tech sphere (which has been holding its breath wondering what lawsuit-happy Apple was waiting for) can now breathe again.

The article says that this “pretty much spells the end for Psystar.” He’s probably right, because it’s not likely Psystar can afford to defend itself… but if it can take this all the way to a trial, there’s a very good chance that it would win. And if that happens, Apple can bend over and kiss its huge computer profit margins goodbye.

But, as I’m sure Apple’s management is counting on, there isn’t much chance of that.

If you run your own website, you might have been following the brouhaha over the new LinkScanner feature of GriSoft’s AVG virus scanner.

I can’t find this text on the GriSoft website, but it was quoted in a comment on another blog I was reading today:

Following is AVG’s official response to LinkScanner concerns:

We’d like to thank our web community for bringing these challenges to our attention, as building community trust and protecting all of our users is critical to us. We have modified the Search-Shield component of LinkScanner to only notify users of malicious sites; this modified version will be rolled out on July 9th 2008. As of this date. Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that webmasters addressed with us. However, it is important to note that AVG still offers full protection against potential exploits through the Active Surf-Shield component of our product, which checks every page for malicious content as it is visited but before it is opened.

Hopefully that’s really from GriSoft, and it’s the last thing we’ll hear about the problem.

Interesting Terms of Service on Google Gears… not only does it explicitly exclude open-source products from the usual disassembly prohibitions, but it enjoins you (if you develop code that uses it) to “protect the privacy and legal rights of those users” (section 5.5). Not the sort of thing you generally see in a software license, but one I heartily endorse.

I’ve always liked Bruce Schneier, a very well-known security professional. Earlier this month, he tackled the thorny question of how You’ve Been Left Behind, a post-Rapture service for those who believe in that Christian concept, secures the information that you give them to ensure that it won’t be stolen or prematurely released.

If you’re not a believer, some of the comments below his article are rolling-in-the-aisles funny. (There’s one that mentions a parody site that’s quite humorous.) If you are a believer, I’d suggest simply reading the article itself.

A sad farewell to Windows XP. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was a lot better than the piece-of-excrement successor that Microsoft is trying to force on everyone right now.

“Pot, meet kettle.”