[Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News

Having your laptop searched at the US border - legal or intrusive?

By Mark O’Neill

Boing Boing has highlighted an interesting page on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website which talks about a recent court ruling - United States v. Arnold - which essentially allows US border guards to search your laptop or other digital devices without legal restraint if you try to enter the United States.

This has got a lot of civil liberties groups up in arms (or as South Park likes to put it, “rabble! rabble! rabble!”), as obviously the contents of your laptop are private. You could have sensitive business information on there. For example, what if you’re a lawyer and you have confidential client information that you can’t reveal to a third party? Or on a personal level, perhaps embarrassing stuff like kinky porn which technically may be legal under the US constitution to own and look at but obviously you don’t want a border guard finding it on your computer? You might even have something REALLY downright embarrassing and reputation destroying like some Britney Spears music from iTunes.

So are there any legal ways or crafty dodges to get around this obvious violation to your privacy and civil liberties? Plus is this court ruling right? Could it be open to an appeal?

Microsoft Windows “about to collapse”?

By Mark O’Neill
Analysts at a consulting firm called Gartner have concluded that Microsoft Windows is perilously close to collapsing, as the default operating system on most computers has become more and more “bulky” and “ill-equipped” to cope with the rapidly changing needs of computer users.
Now before all you Linux geeks start cracking open the champagne [...]

XP SP3 to be released next month!

Here’s some great news for all you die-hard XP fans: XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released in April! This is most assuredly the last major update the operating system will receive until the end of its life, as Microsoft will remove it from store shelves in June.
SP3 contains 1073 patches and hotfixes. Of [...]

Novell versus Microsoft: A never-ending story

When I read yesterday that the United States Supreme Court has decided to reopen an old Novell vs. Microsoft case dating back to 2004, I couldn’t help but think back to what has happened between the two companies in the 20 last years.
If you weren’t following the news back then, here’s what went down: Four [...]

Windows Server 2008, A Rescuer For Vista?

This guest post was submitted by Patrick from Piggy Bank Pie.
Microsoft is releasing Windows Server 2008 on February 27th, and it seems like the IT community has high expectations as this version introduces many new features. However, Microsoft had high hopes in Vista, its latest desktop operating system, but IT managers have yet to respond, [...]

Windows 7: Screenshots and video

Windows Vista hasn’t been the most successful operating system. Since day one it has been plagued with poor support, dwindling sales, and even users who are downgrading to XP after forking over the cash for Microsoft’s latest blunder.
Apparently the boys in Redmond have misunderstood the anguished cries of countless Windows users and have decided to [...]

When all that’s left is to re-boot your day

By Mark O’Neill
Today has been a particularly rotten day. I sometimes have these kinds of days in which nothing ever goes right and everyone irritates me. Clients make unreasonable demands, I drop everything I hold, I am constantly banging into walls, poking myself in the eye… I’m sure you have [...]

A Call for Help: Save Windows XP!

Alas, if things do not change, Windows XP may currently be enjoying its last few months of existence. Even if it still dominates the market (76%), Microsoft has decided to stop selling the product starting June 30. From this point, updates and support for the OS will slowly start to fall into Microsoft’s room for [...]

Apple to Vista users: Please give up on Vista

Personally, I’m tired of Apple trying to pass a message to the mass by using the dissatisfaction of a few. I’ve been running Vista for the past 3 months at home, and up to now, the OS has been running without a glitch: no crash, no drivers or software issues. None. A few of my [...]

Mandriva Linux Pwned by Microsoft

Francois Bancilhon, French editor of Mandriva Linux, recently published an open letter to Steve Ballmer on Mandriva’s corporate blog.
In his letter, he relates that a few months ago, his corporation won a deal where 17000 PCs destined to Nigerian Schools would be equiped with his Linux distribution.
We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. [...]