TDS-3 is dead

I bought a licence for TDS3 when I was a Windows user. I bought it at a time when the Australian dollar was not doing too well against the greenback, and it cost me $AUD99. I paid that premium because I (and everyone else at the Wilders Security Forums) were promised that TDS4 was on the way, in just a short time.

I moved to Apple two years ago, because I had outgrown the need to fight with the insecurities of Windows, but I still keep tabs on whats happening.

So here we are, four (more or less) years since I bought the licence, and on July 22 Wayne announced that TDS3 and TDS4 are dead in the water. Effective immediately.

No matter what the rationale for stopping production now, it would not bother me so much if it werent for those years of broken promises. Not good enough.

Windows New Version: 2006

Microsoft has announced the new version of Windows. Longhorn is now Windows Vista and is due to arrive in 2006.

I know its been a long time coming, but I’ll be amazed if they manage to deliver on time.

However… If you are interested:
Official Microsoft Screenshots here
Beta 1 Factsheet here

and..

A bit of a sendup here which made me chuckle a tad.

I think I’ll still be sticking to my Apple machines, there’s nothing in this release that makes me want to switch back.

ADSL at Last!!

How quickly things can happen. At the beginning of last month I was bemoaning my 28.8 dialup dilemma and now, here I am on DSL at 512/128. Its nice. And except for an initial rush to download something large, just to see how long it would take, I am still doing pretty much what I was doing before. Just a lot more comfortably.

Its really nice to be able to download a 20mb file without having to wait until you’re about to go to bed to set it going.

Bliss.

Apple Reports Record Earnings And Sales

On July 13th, Apple Computer reported a $320 million profit for its fiscal third quarter on revenue of $3.52 billion, the highest in company history. Revenue growth was up 75 percent year-over-year, while profits more than quadrupled.

Apple shipped 1.182 million Macs during the quarter, the highest quarterly figure in four years , and grew at 3 times the market average. This represents 65% year-over-year growth for desktops and 8% growth for portables. iPod sales came in at 6.155 million units. Year-over-year this represents a 616% increase in unit shipments.

Earnings podcast and QuickTime webcast.

Apple’s Tiger is growing up…

Apple has released the second update, 10.4.2, for their Mac OS X Tiger operating system. Weighing in at up to 45MB, this release features a mind boggling number of tweaks, fixes, and new features for file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services, single sign-on authentication and reliable access to Active Directory servers, autologin for managed user accounts, AirPort and wireless access, Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers, Finder updates including finding on Kind and using Slideshow, synchronizing your iDisk with .Mac, installation reliability, managing Dashboard widgets, Address Book, Automator, iCal, iChat, Mail, Safari, and Stickies applications and compatibility with third party applications and devices.

Learn more and download the update from the Apple site or use Software Update.

Stats can be interesting…

Since moving to my new host I have discovered the joys of awstats, and it verifies what I always believed to be true… that being that most of my visitors are NOT IE users.

Browsers	Grabber?	Hits	Percent
Firefox	No	1372	55.3
MSIE	No	722	29.1
Safari	No	179	7.2
Unknown	?	160	6.4
Mozilla	No	15	0.6
Netscape	No	15	0.6
Opera	No	12	0.4
Links	No	3	0.1
wget	Yes	1	0

Beats me why anyone would want to leech my entire site… if thats what they did.. maybe stealing the theme or something. Tragic, isn’t it.

Spyware Warrior

Spyware Warrior looks like its a one-stop shop for all things relating to Spyware on Windows systems.

Its a sad fact of life that no matter where you go on the net, there are people who either want to know more about you than they have a right to, or else they are trying to sell you something that you neither need nor want, but they remain convinced once you see the advertising you’ll change your mind.

One of the site contributors is Eric Howes, a man who ran/runs courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and who still maintains a massive resource there which covers Net privacy, info about malware, anonymity resources and a truckload of other incredibly useful information.

If you use a Windows operating system, and you don’t make a habit of staying abreast of Eric’s information, you’re crazy.