I didn’t think it was possible, but Microsoft has found a new way to piss off its customers.  A report sighted at Slashdot says that the upcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition will allow you to only run three programs at once. What this means is that if you have your web browser, email, and word processor open and you then want to open Excel, you won’t be able to unless you close what you already have open. That is preposterous!

How in the world can Microsoft be so anti-user as to offer this junk? Limitations like this will only frustrate and annoy users to a point where they might go look for other alternatives. I try to be fair to both sides, but this makes me even more happy to use a Mac as my main computer. Apple has it right when they say that they only offer one version of their operating system – the Ultimate Version. It has no limitations and every feature is included for a price much less than Windows.

Windows 7 is looking better than Vista, but Microsoft has made a big mistake with this decision.

Closed beta has begun for FreeRealms, a free-to-play MMO game being created by Sony Online Entertainment. It is a game designed for the entire family, so gamers of all ages will find something fun to do. Not only can you do the standard MMO things like going out an bashing monsters, you can also do things you don’t normally see in an MMO.

Sony has made several videos available on the FreeRealms site that showcase some of the neat things this game will offer. You can race karts, keep pets, play chess, and do other casual things that has nothing to do with going out and killing creatures. The graphics appear to be cartoony but they do look good.

I will be keeping tabs on this title as I am interested to see how good a game Sony will make of it. It will be free-to-play, but there will be many options you won’t have access to unless you pay to play it. To get access to the full game, you’ll need to pony up $5 a month. Sony says there will be no lack of enjoyment for the free players. I hope they hold to that.

If you are an adult, don’t expect to find a huge challenge while playing this game, but if you want something the entire family can have fun with, then head on over and sign up for the beta test.

I am switching my RSS Feed to Feedburner, which means you will need to update your feed links. Click here to update my feed link in your feed reader.

A story came out today that a woman was killed by a rogue laptop computer. Her car was hit by a tow truck, which was not the deadly part.  It seems that her laptop was laying in the backseat, and when her car was hit, it flew up and smacked her in the back of the head. The laptop was the killing blow. This is a sad story, but there are some lessons to be learned here.

You should never leave your computer on your car seat without it being in a case. It would soften the blow if something like this accident happens to you, but it also protects your computer from sunlight and serves as semi-camouflage from thieves. If you must leave your laptop in the car, I recommend placing it on the floor behind the front seat. Keep in mind that heat can negatively affect battery life in computers and cell phones, so don’t leave them in your car for long.

So be safe out there and secure your gadgets.

Now is a great time to think about adding more storage to your computer system. Hard drives are at super low price levels right now, which means you can upgrade on the cheap.  Case in point is this Hitachi 1TB internal hard drive from Newegg for only $69 after $10 rebate and using promo code EMCLRMR54. The promo code is good through 4/22/09.

One terrabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. That is a massive amount of storage! For $70 you can add all the storage you’ll ever need and never worry about running out of space again. This is great for people who download lots of music or videos, or for people who create their own content. High definition video, music, and large photos are big space eaters, which can quickly fill up the smaller hard drives that come with most computers these days. If your hard drive is starting to fill up, consider a hard drive upgrade now. If you don’t need 1TB of storage, there are other great deals on smaller drives, too.

Microsoft today announced that their aging operating system, Windows XP, has officially moved away from Mainstream Support and has transitioned into what they term as the Extended Support level. What this means to you is that Microsoft will no longer offer free support for Windows XP. Any problem you may have with the OS that requires a phone call to Microsoft will also require that you pull out your credit card.

Windows XP has served us well , so don’t free too much over it. The venerable OS has been on the market for over seven years. Microsoft usually only offers five years of mainstream support. They will still provide free security patches via Windows Update, but no new features will be added nor old ones fixed. More information can be found in this article over at Computerworld.

My advice: don’t buy a new computer until Windows 7 (the successor to Vista) comes out. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. It will be worth the wait and you won’t need to suffer through Vista’s many annoyances.

I came across a very useful program that allows me to quickly access the contents of my hard drive from the System Tray in Windows or Menu Bar in Mac OS X. It is called Hawkscope and it performs exactly as advertised.

This program saves multiple clicks by adding a button to the System Tray that takes you right to your files. It is a small program and uses very little resources to run.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

I saw this story over at Gizmodo and though it was worth talking about here.  It seems a guy purchased what he thought was a brand new Western Digital 1TB hard drive. When he got it home and opened the package, he instead found a 9-year-old 30GB drive. When he took it back to get what he paid for, Best Buy refused to replace it or give him his money back.  Once again, Best Buy shows its true colors.

This is not the first time that something like this has happened at Best Buy (as well as many other stores). Clearly, someone else bought the hard drive, replaced it with an old one, and returned it to the store for a refund.  My guess would be the store clerk took the return without paying any attention and just re-shrink wrapped the box and put it back on the shelf for sale.

It is a shame that Best Buy treats its customers this way, but there is a way that you can avoid such problems. After you purchase an item that comes in a box you can’t easily open or is shrink-wrapped, open the item right there in the store next to a sales clerk. They can’t deny what they see with their own eyes.

I have been using Apple’s MobileMe service since the day it launched.  The main reason I signed up for the $99 a year service is because it offered push email, contacts, and calendar without needing a Blackberry or Microsoft Exchange account.  For those who don’t know about push technology, it allows me to make a change on my iPhone or computer and that change will instantly show up on both devices without me having to enter it in twice. It is a big time saver and I never have to worry about not having information when and where I need it. With all that said, I am in the process of leaving MobileMe behind and switching to Google services.

Why make the switch? The first reason is that Google offers most of the features that MobileMe provides. The second reason is that Google does not charge for this service. Gmail, Gmail Contacts, and Google Calendar can now sync with cell phones and computers. Amazingly, Google calls this service Google Sync.

The process you have to go through to switch email providers is never super simple, but Google does a good job of making the transition as painless as possible. They may not do things as slick as Apple does, but I am finding it fairly easy to do. They provide ways to send your contact list and all your email to them, so you don’t have to go through hoops to get that done. You then need to setup Gmail on your computer and/or phone so that you can retrive all your info.  Again, Google provides easy to follow instructions on how to do this. The last step is to let everyone know what your new email address is.  I would give plenty of time before shutting off your old email services so that the stragglers get used to sending you mail to the correct address.

I will go more in-depth with this process once I have used it for awhile so that I may give it a proper review. Stay tuned for further updates.

The Conficker Worm has made lots of headlines lately about how it has the potential of causing a great deal of mischief because so many computers are infected with this virus. Many people are worried that they can’t tell if their computers are infected with it or if they are safe.

Luckily, there is an easy way to tell if your computer has the Conficker worm. Simply go to the Conficker Worm Eyechart page and you will instantly know the answer.  The website is safe and simple.

The Conficker worm blocks computers from going to certain sites, so the Conficker Eyechart page attempts to load images from those sites. You are Conficker free if you see all six images at the top of the page. If some of the images are missing, then you need to take action immediately. Taking action means making sure your anti-virus software is up to date.  Once upated, have your anti-virus software run a full system scan on your computer. If it does not find anything, then you’ll need to consider other Conficker removal options. The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool would be your best option.

If you own a Mac (like yours truly!) then you do not need to concern yourself with this virus.