COMPUTER CURRENTS
Wine allows you to run your Windows apps on an OS X or Linux system
JAMES HEIN
Would you like a little Wine with that, sir? It took 15 years to develop while dodging Microsoft resistance, but the work of 1,076 programmers is ready. Wine is a middleware product that allows Windows to be run on Linux.
The theory then is that people currently using Windows apps can move to Linux and Mac OS X without needing to change the code base of the application. Practice is rarely as easy as theory and the biggest problem has been trying to figure out the secret bits of Windows.
"But wait!" you exclaim, Microsoft is supposed to have opened up those doors. Not really, it still keeps lots secret, and so the 15 years has mostly been reverse engineering pieces to make the product work. Another ironic issue was the need to duplicate bugs in Windows so that the application workarounds functioned correctly.
You might want to read that last sentence again.
At the moment Wine does not support 64-bit apps and you may have to do some tweaking. On the other hand this might be the final piece that will allow you to drop Windows altogether and go in another direction. That favourite Windows app will most likely run under Wine.
The new Firefox, Version 3, is now out. I downloaded the new version, and installed it without any problems. OK, there was one issue, some of my add-ins have not been updated to support Firefox 3 as yet, but when they do the new version will let me know.
The first thing you notice with the new version is the revamped navigation arrows, this now supports a list that is handy for jumping back and forth. The next thing you will notice is the new "awesome" navigation bar. As soon as you start typing it will give you a list of matching sites to select from. Not sure I like this as yet. I do like the star at the end of the URL, double-clicking here adds the site to your bookmarks.
The anti-phishing and anti-malware additions will warn you when you are navigating to a potentially dangerous site. You can now pause and resume a download after restarting the browser. You can also save the password after a successful use. This was annoying if you typed the wrong thing in the previous version. Finally you can save your tabs from the last session so that when you restart they are re-loaded.
The next thing you will notice is that it seems a little faster. It is, and as of writing it is now the "fastest" browser on the market. Javascript loads faster and there are a number of other internal changes including the plugging of some memory leaks and Acid 3 compatibility. All in all I'd say worth the upgrade and it is, after all, free. The next version is due at the end of the year and will add better CSS3 and XHR compatibility.
Industry news
The latest use for Google Earth? That would be Facebook pool parties. A teen will check out Google Earth and find a pool in the neighbourhood, organise a Facebook party location and crash the pool. Web 2.0 at its not so finest?
We could be in for a new rush of malware with the release of the Trojan2Worm (T2W) toolkit. This is a point-and-click utility that helps people create their own malware. The toolkit will turn any executable file into a worm with auto spread capabilities, no skills required, and the tool allows for compression, mutation, the disabling of Task Manager and Regedit and even some browsers. It even has the option to infect removable drives, again, no skills required. Panda Security believes it was developed in Spain.
You financial calculations not going fast enough or you just want to beef up your PC or server? Both nVidia and AMD have one teraflop general purpose GPU (GPGPU) cards that will do this for you. The latest is AMD's FireStream 9250 that drops into a PCI slot.
AMD is working on a UMPC chip. This is the kind that goes in PDAs. "Bobcat" will contain a single, 1GHz AMD64 core, 128KB of L1 cache, 256KB of L2 cache and a DDR2 memory controller capable of connecting to 400MHz memory. The target, of course, is the Intel Atom.
Someone has already found a bug in Firefox 3, one that also happens to be in Firefox 2. The truth is that browser bugs are a fact of life. IE1 to 7 (and probably) 8 has or will have them, and people will find some of them. Some will be exploited, some won't. Most will be patched and then someone will find another one.
In other browser news, Apple has issued an update for its Safari browser, the Windows version - security patches and a couple of other bug fixes, but no functionality changes as such.
Here is a little gem I found. According to the analyst house Evans Data fewer than one in 10 developers are writing applications for Microsoft Vista. About 50 per cent are still focused on Windows XP. This will change next year when about a quarter will shift to Vista but for the time being, XP is the place to code.
Quick quiz, what is the earliest known digital recording? In 1951 the BBC recorded two tracks at Manchester University. The first was Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and the other was a version of In the Mood. They were produced by a Ferranti Mk 1 computer. This was the commercial version of Baby, which is often described as the first modern computer. Now you know.
This week's tip
Do you keep getting a "You are running out of space on C:" message? Here is one thing to check. Right Click on My Computer and click on Properties. Now select the System Restore tab and see if the Turn off System Restore on all drives is checked. If it is not then you may have a lot of your drive space take up with old System Restore Checkpoints.
If you check this box all the existing restore points will be erased potentially freeing up a lot of space. At the same time with no System Restore Point you have lost a recovery option. So after you do this it might be wise to manually create a point, of course you want to make sure that you have run all your anti-virus tools first.
From Start select Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Select Create a Restore Point and follow the Wizard. Make sure you give it a good name including the creation date. If you leave the option turned off you may also want to do this every time you install a new program.
Another option is to uncheck the box again but select your boot drive (C:) and under Settings change the Disk space to use to a lower value because the default is Max or all your available disk space. As an aside some malware likes to piggyback on the System Restore process so clearing your backups out after a nasty infection is also a good idea.
Email: jclhein@gmail.com.
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