1) They asked. Microsoft Communication Services is cloud hosted Exchange and Sharepoint + Outlook 2010. Rackspace waived the $12.50/month fee on their plan for 1-year, in exchange for our feedback. I’ll also share my experiences here, and in future posts. $150 in free services didn’t motivate the change. I was curious, and excited to explore an alternative to Google Apps. A 14-day free trial is available to everyone.

2) Gmail performance issues. Randomly, inexplicably, without warning, and without explanation Gmail gets slow. Not usually a big deal for personal email, but a productivity killer, or even loss of business for some. For a company that prides itself on speed, Gmail suffers. Some people are even begging to pay for better performance.

Google, please set a price — any price — that you determine is necessary to keep anyone’s account running smoothly at all times. I’ll gladly pay it. I don’t care if it’s $100 a year or $1,000 a year. It would be worth it.

What if you’re unlucky enough to have your emails accidentally deleted (and later restored)? When’s the last time you backed up your Gmail account?

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One of the most painful aspects of formatting, or setting up a new machine is installing all the apps, and then updating the pre-installed apps.

Ninite.com is free and offers a simple interface that greatly speeds the process. Simply point-and-click. After selecting your apps, a single installation file is quickly generated for download. After running the installer, apps are downloaded and installed automatically.

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Intel’s AppUp has offered a PC version of Angry Birds for $4.99 for some time now. Recently, they began offering it free if following a special link from Best Buy. This game supports touch in Windows, and plays just like the iPad/Phone/Touch version. It even supports multi-monitor.

1) Visit BestBuy’s Intel AppUp Page:

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McAfee recently released it’s threat predictions for 2011 (PDF). Among the forecast for 2011:

• Social Media including Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging will distribute more malware than email. Related are short URL service abuses, and personalized attacks that appear to originate from your friends. Think twice before clicking a short URL to open that video your Facebook friend sent you. If you’re required to install something to view the video, it’s almost certainly malware.
• Mobile malware has been predicted for some time. Could 2011 be the year mobile malware makes its presence felt? Smartphone use has exploded, for both personal and  business use. Rootkits and botnets are making their way onto these mobile devices. They are attractive targets. Not only are the devices used for banking and online access, but the camera and microphone can be hijacked as well. If malware has “root” access on your phone, chances are it has access to your email, Facebook, contacts, even GPS location.

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What is a Windows 7 Family Pack? It’s a discounted 3-user pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (upgrade versions). Available for $150 from Microsoft (or $140 from Amazon), you’ll save $200+ if you’re upgrading 3 PCs!

Already running Windows XP or Vista? Then you’re eligible for this upgrade offer (Vista can be upgraded using Windows 7, but XP will require a clean install).

Is Home Premium the right version for you? Unless you need to join a domain (mostly corporate networks), or require XP mode, then yes it probably is. Do you need 32-bit or 64-bit? Don’t worry, they are both included.

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A recent Prevx blogpost details information on the new TDL3 rootkit, which they have deemed, “the first x64 compatible kernel mode rootkit infection in the wild.” Followed with more information in a post today.

While much of the information presented by Prevx is highly technical, there are some takeaways for the average user. Most importantly, this 64-bit infection requires administrator privileges. The best option is to run as a standard user, but it also won’t run if User Account Control (or UAC) is activated. I run as standard user, and there is really no reason for your account to run as administrator.

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Chances are you know the rules for creating a secure password. Don’t use a dictionary word. Use upper and lowercase letters. Use at least one special character. Unfortunately, most people don’t follow even these basic rules. Recently, advances in computational power have made them as obsolete as your AOL account. Say goodbye to the old rules, and the concept of a password. Hello passphrase.

How does an attacker crack a password? Two common methods are dictionary attack, and “brute force” attack. A dictionary attack uses a database of common words and likely character sequences to guess the password. A “brute force” attack tries every possible combination of the 95 characters on a keyboard until they find the right one. Obviously, a one character password would be easy to brute force attack, as it would require a maximum of 95 attempts. Adding a character makes it exponentially more difficult (by 95 times). For example, a two character password has 95 x 95, or 9,025 possible combinations. A 3 character password 9,025 x 95 (95^3), or  857,375 combinations. Read the rest of this entry »

Two years ago Spanair flight JK-5022 crashed, killing 154 of 172 on board. According to El Paris (via Google Translate), this was at least in part due to a PC located on the ground in the headquarters of the airline. That computer was supposed to sound an alarm signal when three similar technical problems registered on the same device. While the plane that crashed had accumulated three incidents, they were not registered in time because the system was infected by malware (trojans).

Investigators believe this may be the cause of the crash. The judge said that if these three incidents had been identified earlier, the plane never would have taken off.

The big box store where you bought your HDTV might have made more on the sale of the HDMI cable than the TV. While the margins on big ticket items like HDTVs are small, the margins on smaller ticket accessories can be very fat. How do you sell a $229 HDMI cable when a $29 would work just as well? I guess you mislead consumers by mislabeling them.

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Today Intel announced plans to buy McAfee for $7.7 billion dollars. Most people are asking, “Why?”. Why would a chip maker acquire a security company?

The answer may lie within Moore’s Law. Simply stated Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 2 years. Intel seems to have difficulty figuring out what to do with all those transistors. Most computer users don’t need a quad core CPU. Yet Intel continues to roll out more cores.

However, as anyone who has installed an antivirus program knows, it’s probably the single biggest resource hog on your system. Slowing everything from email and the Internet, to startup and shutdown. What if the major components of an antivirus program could be placed in a special section of the CPU, or even its own core? Whether you’re a gamer, enthusiast, or just an average user you’d enjoy the benefits of being able to run an AV without the associated system slowdown.

Have you ever removed an antivirus, or run a system without an antivirus because of performance issues? Need a free antivirus program, check out our recommendations.