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News from the Computer World

Dell Stops Using Tech Support in India

After an onslaught of complaints, Dell Computers has stopped routing corporate customers to a technical support call center in India because customers have been complaining about the quality of the support they've been receiving.

"Every time I see a Dell commercial on TV, I just cringe. They make it sound so easy and it's been a nightmare," one dissatisfied customer said. "I even said to them once that I'd like to speak to someone in the U.S. They gave me a number but it's a recording and I can't speak to a human being."

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New Bandwidth Available for Wireless Products

Storage Vendors Pleased with Comdex

Comdex Las Vegas may have been short in numbers, but it brought out a large contingent of storage vendors showing a variety of products.

Most storage vendors said they felt that the attendees of this show were better qualified, and more able to talk business than in the past.

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Actually, “short in numbers” best describes Comdex 2003. Several years ago, it took 5 days to see everything and only if you kept moving. This year, the show could be easily seen in one day.

Wal-Mart May Offer Branded Notebook PCs

Wal-Mart plans to add notebook PCs to its product list next year, according to news reports. The retail giant is being courted by several Taiwan-based notebook PC makers, including Arima Computer, Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, and Wistron, to provide product for the new line.

Wal-Mart is expected to place one or two test orders in the first quarter of next year, according to Taiwan's China Economic News Service. Arima will get an order for more than 100,000 units.

Sam Bhavnani, mobile computing analyst at ARS, expects Wal-Mart to enter the market with a sub-$800 model. Bhavnani said that, based on Arima's current products, Wal-Mart could be considering three possible configurations, all of which include a 15-inch LCD panel, a 40-Gbyte hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW drive and Windows XP. One configuration, based on the Celeron 2.5GHz processor with 256 Mbytes of RAM, could be priced at $699.

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Video That Doesn't Need A Monitor To Display

IO2 Technology of Lake Forest, Ill., Founded by Chad Dyner, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is working on a device that projects a two-dimensional video image into thin air. The picture simply floats in front of the viewer, and doesn't require special lenses to see.

The device sucks a block of air out of the surrounding environment, modifies its properties, then blows the air out the top so that it reflects protons projected onto it. The company built a 5-inch-image prototype that was demonstrated in 2002, and is now showing off a 42-inch version.

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Microsoft To Ship Virtual PC 2004 At Steep Discount

The Redmond, Wash.-based software company will make the updated Virtual PC title available at a list price of $129. Microsoft's Virtual PC will hit retail stores on Dec. 2.

Virtual PC allows customers to run multiple operating systems on a single machine. While it is intended to support multiple Windows OS images, Linux virtual machines will be supported in hosted mode.

"With Virtual PC, you can run software that requires hardware you don't yet have available, or if you want to test 64-bit software versions without duplicating the hardware," according to a non-Microsoft source.

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Dell Adds Smart Cards To Secure Corporate Systems

Dell unveiled smart cards and associated software for enterprises that want to more closely control who has access to which laptops, desktops, and workstations. Each package consists of two smart cards and authentication software.

The two-factor authentication provided by smart cards -- a traditional password and the physical card -- is designed to ensure that only authorized users can access a machine or the network.

The cards come in two flavors. For $49, the smart cards and software provides secure log on, and file and folder encryption. For $69 the purchaser gets added support for encrypted e-mail.

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Microsoft Announces Schedule For Security Improvements.

Businesses should see a 180-degree improvement in the security of their Windows software environments within eight months, according to Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates. Microsoft's security-improvement program involves more rigorous software-development techniques and bug testing, new security products, and changes in the way patches are distributed.

Systems Management Server 2003 represents the single biggest advance in helping system administrators better cope with Microsoft's steady flow of security bulletins. The product features new vulnerability identification and assessment capabilities, a wizard that simplifies patch distribution, and improved integration with Microsoft's software-update service. As more businesses use SMS 2003 to manage the patch process, Gates predicted, the work involved will become merely "noise-level" activity.

In September, one business-technology executive sent Microsoft a letter requesting a $150,000 refund to cover the costs associated with patching his company's Windows systems

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UPS Tip

One of the fine folks at Powerware's service department tells us to plug your UPS directly into the wall outlet. Routing it through a surge protector will actually shorten the life of the UPS' battery. When the surge protector clamps down on a voltage spike, it causes the UPS to cycle briefly which puts a strain on the circuitry and the battery.

Any decent UPS has a built-in surge protector which will protect your electronic equipment just fine.

Follow the instructions that came with your surge protector and don't attach equipment such as thermal printers or other items that are not recommended by the UPS manufacturer.

New Virus Disguised as PayPal email

A computer virus that camouflages itself as a PayPal message is spreading across the World Wide Web. The virus is a variant of Mimail, which was previously disguised as a security advisory from Microsoft®.

This version is attached to an email made to look like it came from PayPal. Running the program infects the victim's computer and asks the PC user for credit card information which is then sent to the person who originated the virus.

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People should never provide vital personal information in response to email queries. For one, information sent in “clear” over the Internet is never safe from packet sniffers. Only trusted, secure websites, such as PayPal's, should be used to provide such information and only when absolutely necessary.

Always check your browser to be sure that the page you are working with is secure. In Explorer, a picture of a closed padlock should appear in the lower-right corner. In Netscape, the padlock in the lower-right corner should be closed. If the site you are working with does not offer a secure transaction page, find a better way to provide the information, such as a direct telephone conversation or a letter (in a sealed envelope) sent through the mail.