In March, Google only controlled 64.4 percent of search. While it is possible to have a monopoly with control over just 65 percent of a market, it isn’t likely to hold up in this case. First, the other 30 percent is controlled by a single competitor, so we aren’t talking about one company with a huge share and then 35 companies fighting over 1 percent scraps. In fact, a 65/30/5 split sounds like a lot of markets with a number one and a number two player.

Sadly, these numbers won’t stop the anti-trust trolls from making a run at Google. For one thing, in the U.S. at least, anti-trust is often highly political, and in politics perception is reality. Right now, the perception is that Google is all mighty.

For another, anti-trust lawsuits are, by nature, historical in nature. In order to prove that a company has used its dominate market position in an anti-competitive nature, the company has to have already used its dominate market position in an anti-competitive way.

In other words, the anti-trust actions that come Google’s way would be talking about 2009 and 2010, not March 2011, although Google may be able to play those numbers — particularly if they continue — into lesser penalties should they lose and/or choose to settle.

After all, it doesn’t make any sense to go breaking up the number one company in an industry just so the number two company can become the number one company.

In the meantime, maybe the company has paid a price for Google’ broken search algorithm being allowed to run too long. Maybe other non-Microsoft companies like Blekko can gain traction. And, maybe, all of this is nothing but a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Either way, the headlines for the technology writers out there virtually write themselves for anyone looking to get into a tizzy about the whole thing one way or another.

Microsoft Bing Now Controls 30 Percent of Search is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Apparently, according the unmoderated Microsoft Answers website, there is a new color scheme for Microsoft Security Essentials and the new gray color is not an indication that MSE itself has been compromised.

If you want to be 100 percent sure, you’ll need to run a boot-time virus scan and / or download the Microsoft Malware Removal tool. You could also run one of the other anti-virus company’s online virus scans to get a second opinion, although if MSE were compromised in such a way that kept it from being detected by the Antimalware Service running on Windows 7, it is likely the same virus would be able to avoid detection by an online virus scanner.

See my latest Citibank rewards card review…

Security Essentials Updates

It would be nice if Microsoft had mentioned the new color scheme. After all, security software is the one thing that each user has to be very careful about monitoring and installing correctly. It does not inspire confidence when one goes online to Microsoft’s website or the Security Essentials help files and finds nothing but screenshots of MSE running with a blue color scheme instead of the new black and white looking gray color scheme.

The above is one of the support videos on Microsoft’s official Security Essentials website. Notice the familiar blue color scheme for the background and the tab colors.

A different background color might be just the sort of thing to clue a computer user into the fact that there was something wrong with their antivirus software. A little notice or heads up of some sort might have been nice.

Good day to you all.

New Color in Microsoft Security Essentials: Gray? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

However, there is a new bummer. Looks like a new version of Live Sync is coming. It is currently in beta. However, it looks like the new beta version of Live Sync will not support Windows XP. That wouldn’t be so bad except that it also says that all of your Microsoft sync clients must be updated to the beta version in order to work together. That means you won’t be able to use Live Sync to keep files and folders synchronized between Windows 7 and Windows XP computers unless you keep your Win 7 boxes on the old (current) version of the client. (Maybe some of that will change when the client comes out of beta.)

Windows Live Sync, part of the Microsoft Live Essentials for Windows 7 and other operating systems has been down for a couple of days now. The sync.live.com website says that the Live Sync Website is offline for maintenance and gives a link to the Live Sync newsgroup for more information. Of course, there is no more readily accessible OFFICIAL information posted on the newsgroup, so we can only assume that this is some sort of default setting when there is a problem with Live Sync.

The Live Sync software client installed on each PC has an icon that displays the sync status. Currently, it has alternating arrows blue and white and says “Not Signed In” despite being logged in already with passwords saved.

For this mobile freelance writer, the Live Sync outage is starting to become a pain since I use Live Sync to keep folders and files synchronized between my desktop computer, writing laptop, and my writing netbook.

Hope it comes back up soon and this is not an indicator of things to come.

Windows Live Sync Down Website Says is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Today, however, two of IE 8′s many shortcomings popped up in my face again and I figured that I would write this post in hopes that a growing chorus of user voices might just get Microsoft to pay attention to what is really wrong with Internet Explorer instead of what they think is wrong with Internet Explorer.

First and foremost is the Apple Computer-like arrogance that keeps IE from offering a way to choose your own setting for how IE 8 handles browser sessions. In every modern web browser out there, except for IE 8, you can choose to restore your last browsing session by default. That is, you can tell the browser to open all of the same tabs and webpages that were open during your last browsing session automatically the next time you start your browser.

Internet Explorer offers the ability to restore your last browsing session, but requires that you do it manually. The stated reason for this enormous deficiency in browser functionality is  privacy. Microsoft thinks that the possibility that someone might inadvertently see the website you were looking at last time is more important than you (the user) wanting to be able to pick right back up where you left off. Or, in the case of yours truly, not only pick right back up where I was online last time, but also to BE REMINDED of where I was last time without having to jot down notes or send myself a reminder or whatever.

While privacy is important and a worthy goal, allowing the user to use the software in the way that works best for them is WAY more important. It makes perfect sense that for privacy reasons Microsoft does not set Internet Explorer 8 to reopen the last browsing session by default. It makes NO SENSE whatsoever that Microsoft will not provide that option as one of the settings that can be customized in IE 8. I guess this feature wasn’t widespread enough during the development of IE 8 for Microsoft to bother copying it into their “revolutionary” new browser.

Spell Check Missing From IE 8

There is also no spell check in IE8 by default. In a world where more and more is done online on the Internet, being able to spell check your entries into fields and forms is paramount. Of course, at the time, although everyone else had a spellchecker, and Microsoft has access to arguably one of the most complete spellcheck programs anywhere (the one in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office), they didn’t bother to include it. You have to download an addon called ieSpell in order to get spell check in IE 8. I guess that they wanted to make sure that at least someone downloaded an IE addon since as we discussed above, anyone willing to go download add-ons would have long ago downloaded a better browser instead.

Password Saving Wrong Time

Finally, IE 8 has a very annoying flaw in the way it saves and remembers passwords for websites. Apparently when Microsoft sent down the command to copy the password save and remember function from better browsers like Firefox, they didn’t actually pay enough attention to how it was done to copy it right.

When you enter a username and password in Chrome, Opera, or Firefox, the next page continues to load behind the dialog box that asks you whether or not you want to save the password. This is critical because all webpages hide the password you enter behind astericks which means that you can never be sure that you got the password right until the login page loads and sends you on your way with a successful login. On good web browsers, you enter your username and password, and then, if there is any doubt in your mind about whether or not your login will be successful, you just wait and see. If the login works, THEN you click Save or Yes to Save your password. If not, you click No and enter the password again and the browser correctly offers you a chance to save THAT password.

The jack#ss that designed Internet Explorer 8′s password save and remember functionality makes you answer the question BEFORE the next page will load. That means that you have to say Yes in order to see if the login was successful or not. If it was not sucessful, then you have already saved the WRONG password thanks to this bassackwards feature.

The worst part is that when you re-enter your login information and actually get it right, IE may not even offer to change the wrong information it already saved, especially if you fat-fingered the username. Now that website has TWO username and password combinations saved and one of them will be wrong forever unless you go manually dig into the guts of the IE settings menus to find and delete that wrong information.

Microsoft, while you are building functions and support and speed into IE 9, if you could please fix these things that you got wrong in IE 8, we would really appreciate it. Of course, it isn’t really that big of deal. Those of us that know better only use IE for two reasons: to get stuff off your own website, and to make sure that our websites look right for the chuckleheads who use your browser.

Internet Explorer Flaws to Fix for IE 9 is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Custom Windows 7 Sounds

When installing a new theme, you probably look at the pretty background images, the colors, and maybe how it does or does not support Aero. But, don’t forget that different themes can also come with different sounds.

After weeks of being annoyed by a banjo sound as my windows default beep, I finally went into the Personalize control panel for Windows 7 to change it. I was surprised to find so many sound themes inside. I thought everyone just basically left the default Windows sounds alone with the exception of one or two tweaks here and there.

To save you some time, let me tell you that the best way to search through the Windows sound themes is by selecting the Default Beep sound and then clicking on the little speaker to play a sample of what it will sound like.

Take a little break and read Citibank rewards catalog information.

The Default Beep is what you will hear more than anything else while using your computer. It is the beep that you hear when you get an non-critical error message (like when you click the wrong thing), or the beep you hear when you get a basic status message like print job completed, or software updated or whatever. In other words, you had better like the sound of the default beep.

Go through the available Windows 7 sound themes and find the ones that have a default beep that you like, or that you can at least live with. THEN, you can check out the other sounds and pick your favorite customized Windows 7 sound theme. Otherwise, you are just wasting time because you’ll be back trying to fix that annoying banjo sound beep in no time at all.

Enjoy your customized Windows 7 installation. You deserve it.

Happy day.

Customize Windows 7 Sound Themes Personalize It is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

The trouble with statistics is two-fold. Number one, far too many Americans are math illiterate. High Schools and Colleges let students graduate with progressively less math. Not that it would matter, considering the staggering number of Americans who can’t remember much of anything that they learned in school anyway. (This suggests a problem of motivation and lack of respect for one’s own mind, but I’m not going there with this post.)

Number two, the critical component of valid statistical analysis is analyzing the RIGHT data. The only way to know whether or not it is the right data being analyzed is to look at the raw data behind the statistics. Unfortunately, that requires a basic understanding of math at a level above addition and subtraction. (See #1)

That being said, numbers don’t lie, as the other saying goes, and neither do statistics. As long as one understands what numbers are being analyzed and what is being said about them, there is no need to understand any complex advanced statistical formulas or concepts.

Apple Versus Microsoft Dollars Sales Value

Recently, the media made a big deal out of the fact that Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization, theoretically making Apple a more valuable company than Microsoft. Of course, market cap is just one of many ways to measure a company’s value. To actually buy Microsoft or Apple you would have to pay more than the current share price.

Microsoft put up a post on the official Microsoft blog recently regarding some of the other numbers out there. In some ways it is a defense against the accelerating notion that Microsoft is a dying dinosaur while Apple is the future. In another way, it is nothing more than a different way of looking at the numbers.

For example, no one is disputing that Microsoft continues to dominate the enterprise and the personal computer markets. Those markets are far from small and despite plenty of pronouncements that the future does not include the computer as we know it, there is still the pesky problem of input. While the iPad may be a fun new way to view and interact with data, it is a terrible way to do data entry. Not even Apple claims that you should be able to type 80 words per minute on an iPad once you get used to it. That means the iPad for writers and other data creating professionals is a non-starter as a primary device.

The real dig in the numbers actually is in the past projections of Microsoft’s demise, such as the explosive growth of Linux displacing Microsoft in the server world. While Linux has enjoyed remarkable growth and Microsoft should not take too much pride in the fact that it has managed to “hold off” what it should have been able to crush, the so-called experts did miss by a large margin. The implication is that they are doing it again with their projections of huge growth for devices like the iPad.

The best part is that almost all of the numbers cited include a “source” so that an interested reader can verify the data for themselves, saving us all for wondering whether or not this is a bunch of lies, damn lies, or statistics.

But, even with the source links there is still plenty of wiggle room in these numbers. Consider the two statistics showing that less than ten percent of US netbooks were running Windows in 2008 and that 96 percent of US netbooks were running Windows in 2009. Sounds pretty good for Microsoft, right?

What the numbers are hoping you forgot is that in order to get that number in 2009, Microsoft had to re-authorize manufacturers to sell Windows XP because its bloated Windows Vista operating system couldn’t even be used. Furthermore, those sales also included cut-rate, bargain basement pricing of XP which made using Microsoft Windows cost effective. Without those two capitulations, that percentage might be single digits.

And those iPhone sales numbers are for Q1 2010, before the new iPhone 4.0 version came out, but after pretty much everyone guessed it was coming. In other words, those sales numbers represent the calm before the storm. Considering Apple says it sold 1.7 million iPhones in just three days. We will have to wait until Q3 to see real numbers because the new iPhone was only available for a few weeks of Q2.

Projected Sales for Apple Devices and Microsoft Software

• Projected iPad Sales in 2010: 7.1 million
• Projected PC sales in 2010: 355 million
• iPhone Sales in first 3 days: 1.7 million

No matter how you slice, it Microsoft has a bigger market. More importantly, Microsoft continues to have no serious competitive threat. On the other hand, Android devices may soon equal or surpass the iPhone and will be offered on more than one wireless carrier. Likewise, touch screen computers are reportedly on the boards from many manufacturers who can use the iPad as a starting point.

In the end, projections and numbers are worthless. What matters is execution. Microsoft has a long history of sloppy, unloved products that barely pass muster, yet its execution in the sales arena is unparalleled. Apple has a long history of beloved, widely praised products that never manage to reach an audience bigger than its fan base. If the outcome of this decades old battle is to change, then one of these two technology companies has to get better at the part of the equation it is no good at.

Microsoft Versus Apple Market Cap Is Not Everything is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Autoruns 10 Utility Shows All Startup Locations

Nothing exposes a big computer programming flaw like a software utility created to fix that bug. Autoruns is a Windows based utility that does just one simple thing. Autoruns shows you all of the programs and services set to run at startup on a Windows computer system. Only, it is NOT a simple thing.

Originally, the only programs that started running automatically at boot up were those that were required by the operating system in order to make the computer work. However, programs added to the folder labeled "Startup" on Windows computers would also run at startup.

It turns out that people don’t necessarily want a bunch of programs automatically running every time that they start up their computer. In fact, most people would rather start programs when, and only when, they needed to use them. So, savvy computer users began deleting programs out of the Startup menu and the race between crappy, bloated, software and computer system users was on.

Thank You Rewards Network by Citibank Credit Cards

Software developers can’t wean themselves off the crutch of starting their software automatically or pre-loading some or all of a computer program at boot time. Microsoft kicked this trend off by putting a Microsoft Office toolbar that nobody wanted – especially when they found out how much system power it wasted to run – in the startup folder. Other software developers followed cramming toolbars and other useless items into the various start at boot locations available on Windows operating system computers.

Bloated Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe became the poster child for system resource abuse when it began pre-loading a hefty chunk of its overweight Acrobat Reader at boot time.

As PDF files became a more commonly used format, the glaring bloat and inefficiency of Adobe software became more apparent to even non-expert computer users. When users were browsing a website with their Internet browser and clicked on a link that was to a PDF file, nothing happened.

Actually, that isn’t really true. What was true, was that nothing SEEMED to happen. What was actually happening, was that Adobe Acrobat Reader was struggling to load its enormous self in order to display the PDF link. It took literally 10 seconds on some well configured computers for a PDF page to load the first time. It got so bad that people stopped clicking on PDF links because they knew that meant a long weight for even a one-page document. In addition, savvy computer users turned to Acrobat Reader alternatives written by other developers.

In response, instead of re-coding and streamlining it Heifer of a PDF viewer, Adobe chose instead to penalize every computer in the world with Adobe Reader installed by pre-loading part of its software at startup and leave it running the whole time the computer was in use just so that its reader would appear to start faster. Of course, if you are going to abuse people’s system resources, you need to hide it and make sure that they don’t just delete a shortcut or something to end pre-loading the bloated software.

Good clipboard manager stores multiple entries.

As it turns out there are literally hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of ways that a software developer can force their applications or utilities to run at start up time on a Windows computer. Unfortunately, there are far fewer ways that users can view and manage all of these vampire processes that suck the performance blood out of computer systems.

Using MSCONFIG to configure which programs run at startup is a joke. Not only can programs easily re-add themselves to startup whenever you do end up running them, MSCONFIG only shows a tiny fraction of the ways that software can be installed to run at bootup. Autoruns 10 was recently released by the folks at Sysinternals (which was acquired by Microsoft, at least in part, no doubt, to stem the tide of data that made Microsoft Windows look bloated, badly configured, and deeply flawed).

Autoruns 10 claim to fame is that it is the most comprehensive startup manager utility in existence because it scans hundreds more potentially hidden startup locations than other startup configuration manager software does.

Computer screen causing eye problems?

Does anyone else see the painful irony here?

In order for the user to be able to make their computer do what they want it to do, they need a special extra tool to sniff out and find all the tricks software development companies use to get the computer to do what the software company wants regardless of what the user wants.

Considering the slow boot time was one of the top reasons people hate Vista so much, you would think that Microsoft would want to put an end to this practice. After all, part of the reason Vista boots so slow and one of the things that can drag the bootup time for Windows XP and the startup time for Windows 7 is all of these auto-starting programs. It doesn’t make the poor quality software that these companies sell look bad, it makes Windows look bad. A quick load would be one way to make people love Windows 7.

Unfortunately, Microsoft depends on these tricks as much as other computer companies, so until they can get their own house in order, users only defense against rogue programs wasting resources is vigilant use of programs like Sysinternals AutoRuns to keep programs from adding themselves to one of the numerous hidden startup locations. Of course, in order to really watch your computer’s resources, you’ll need another third-party utility by, you guessed it, Sysinternals.

Process Explorer is what Task Manager should be, except Task Manager allows software companies to hide what programs and processes they are actually running from Task Manager so, once again, they can look like their software runs better than it really does.

Get Autoruns 10. There isn’t anything else you can do.

Biggest Windows Flaw Also Most Annoying Windows Problem is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

To skip ahead, search enhancement pack remove seaport.exe

The trojan program from Microsoft is the Windows Live software bundle.  Installing any one of the applications from the bundle will result in an extra service being secretly installed on the user’s computer.  The service, called SeaPort, is installed as an Automatic service and thus runs on startup each and every time the user boots their computer regardless of whether or not they are running the software that was ethically installed on their computer by request.

Searches done on both Google and Microsoft’s own Live search engine show no mention whatsoever of Seaport on Microsoft’s website except in a user community where another bewildered user asks, “What is Seaport and should I be worried?”  Screenshots of the Seaport-less searches done on January 28, 2009 are here:

….. ….    

As confused users arrive here in droves by asking seaport.exe what is (grammar isn’t a strong suit of the flummoxed searcher) one can only wonder how many millions of other users haven’t even noticed.

Enough is Enough

I have officially had it with software companies (and Microsoft is not the only one) installing any and all of their garbage on my computer whenever they feel like it because they think it will improve the experience for using software that I may or may not ever use!

I am now looking into starting a non-profit organization that monitors, publicizes, and when necessary pursues other actions against software companies for this and other unethical installation practices.  If you want to be kept in the loop as it gets started up, grab the RSS Feed or shoot an email to wghubris@besthubris.com asking to be added to the email list.  (I not only do not spam or sell your email address, I won’t even email for any reason other than this topic unless you state otherwise.)

SeaPort Service seaport.exe – Trojan Alert? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

However, Microsoft’s push into document collaboration with an off-cloud solution (which can, of course, be extended into the cloud) may start paying dividends soon thanks to several nifty new features in Microsoft Word 2010 and other MS Office products.

Word 2010 has a new feature that allows you to work on a document with other people together in real time. As you type, your changes and additions are shown on the screen of other users working on the same Word document. If it is a short document, or if you just happen to be working on the same page, you can actually see it happening. There is an eerie sort of feeling when text that you are typing or editing suddenly starts changing around you. As an added bonus, you can see how fast your coworkers type and how often they hit the backspace key

I’m most looking forward to this session, but there looks like plenty of good info to go around.

Deploying the Next Wave of Business Productivity — The plan is in place, architecture has been documented and the day has come to deploy. In this session we will look at the tools and enhancements for deploying the Business Productivity Platform, focused particularly around desktop deployment including Office 2010, Visio 2010, and Windows 7. We will also look at deployment and migration of SharePoint sites. Learn more about the best tools and resources available to make your deployments successful.

If you can’t make a whole day event, Microsoft also has half-day launch events scheduled in some cities as well.

Microsoft Office 2010 Launch Events is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Recently, there was some hubbub about Microsoft not intending to deliver the next Internet Explorer version upgrade on the Windows XP platform. It shouldn’t really be a shock since official support for Windows XP has ended, it is not much of leap to figure that the company won’t really be developing much in the way of new software, services, or features for XP, unless there is some sort of strategic advantage in doing so.

The current support end date is April 13, 2010 which marks the end of support for Windows XP Service Pack 2, or SP2 as it is better known. Also, support for Windows Vista RTM ends that day as well, although no one really seems to care about that.

The interesting piece of this situation is that there is no Service Pack 3 for the 64-bit version of XP which means that there is no update to install in order to "catch-up" to the current support window. However, Microsoft has put the 64-bit version on the SP3 end of support timeline, which means essentially, that all XP editions currently running the latest Microsoft Service Pack are set until April 8, 2014 which marks the end of line for those operating systems to receive updates or patches.

Capital One Rewards Catalog update at Finance Gourmet

There is some confusion among those not in the IT industry over exactly what is going on here, since Microsoft already said that there was no more support for Windows XP. Allow me to fill in the gaps.

When Microsoft ended XP support it was a mostly symbolic gesture made to push people and businesses to upgrade to Vista, and more seriously, to Windows 7. While regular home users of Windows XP have been "unsupported" for some time now, businesses with various levels of support agreements or volume licensing agreements have continued to receive support under those programs. This is not surprising, since business made it very clear that they were not going to upgrade to Vista. If Microsoft wanted to keep getting the dollars that those service agreements generate, they were going to have to offer the support businesses wanted to pay for which was XP support.

In other words, public, free, Windows XP support is long gone. But, businesses that pay big dollars for their Microsoft support, or that have it as part of their purchase contracts, still get it. Microsoft has continued to release patches and updates for security issues and other technical problems in Windows XP in order to support these business customers. Once developed, there is no reason not to make them available to everyone, so patches and updates have continued to arrive for home users on Windows XP SP2 as well.

Denver 16th Street Mall Shuttle at Fun-Denver-Attractions.com

If you are wondering how anyone could still be running XP SP2, the answer lies in the massive, hard to support, even harder to secure, installations within American business. These companies did not adopt SP3 because it contained some new features or "fixes" that either broke something they needed to keep working, or that those companies were worrying would open up security issues or other problems. Keep in mind that some of these companies use computer hardware for several years and each upgrade requires more power than some of their oldest PCs have.

By now, most companies have moved to SP3 and just disabled whatever they did not need out of it, so Microsoft can shutdown SP2 support altogether. That does not mean that those companies are ready to make the move to Windows 7 anytime soon, which is why the SP3 support date is another couple of years into the future. By 2014, Microsoft is hoping that anyone left on Windows SP3 will be the stragglers as opposed to the established majority, like they are today.

What it all means to you is that you need to install SP3, or the next vulnerability that gets discovered in XP won’t get patched on your system which means it is only a matter of time until your PC is overrun with Trojans and viruses.

More importantly, it moves the hand of the Windows XP Doomsday clock closer to midnight.

Windows XP Support Ending Soon is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC