TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

Sometimes solutions are worse than the problems they try to solve; SpamCop and its ilk are among these. Microsoft is preparing a new, expensive update to Office. Is now the time to look at the free Open Office? Nerdly News looks at browser downloads, flaming batteries, and auto sales.

Firefox 2 will soon be ready for download and is currently available as release candidate 3. Google made a mistake in GMail that would probably have earned a failing grade in a freshman programming class. In Nerdly News, pump-and-dump stock schemes and Internet Explorer 7 is now available (if you have the right operating system).

Phishing continues to be a problem and ZillaBar promises a solution. Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver. Sometimes protective applications get in their own way, but we still need them. Anti-spam measures can be effective against phishing. In Nerdly News, a look at a double 13 Friday and a new flaw in Microsoft Office.

If you own an Adobe product, you've probably heard from Element K Journals (now known as ELI Journals). The company is now using a company that has a bad reputation with the Better Business Bureau to solicit subscriptions. Beware! I had another run-in with Wide Open West's tech support, but I've also had another delightful experience with TCR's tech support. In nerdly news, flaming batteries and H...

Another "zero-day" exploit can allow someone to take over your computer if you visit a bad website -- and this is something that can happen by accident. The Mars Rovers have survived on Mars for 1000 days. Scientists would have been happy with 100 days. Thumbs Plus illustrates how even simple utility applications grow to be large applications. In Nerdly News, a look at Microsoft's Zune and a scowl...

The latest version of Itunes has an even better user interface and a few features that still need some work. Internet Explorer 7's new interface will confuse some people. Beware highly trained dogs in business. Nerdly News notes the loss of thousands of government computers and follows the ongoing HP soap opera.

Television over the Internet is still primitive, lacking in content and quality, and hard to find -- but that will be changing. HP is in a mess and investigations and both state and federal investigations are underway. Firefox updated itself -- in 1969? Nerdly News notes the 50th birday of the hard drive.

Save time and effort with TypeIt4Me on your Mac. Installing a wireless network is easier than ever and more people have secure networks. In Nerdly News, a new way to catch spam and Amazon offers pay TV on your computer.

Podcasting's advantages over broadcasting. What you need to create your own podcast. An interview with security expert Tom Olzak on how to keep your college student's computer safe. In Nerdly News, more on the battery recall and a look at upcoming versions of Apple's and Microsoft's operating systems.

Apple has joined the big recall of Sony batteries, but finding the information on Apple's website isn't easy. Microsoft has finally released a security patch to fix a security patch. Internet Explorer 7 is closer to being released.

The Logitech Bluetooth headphones I said were so great turned out not to be such a good deal when the broke in half after 3 weeks. A new thumb drive comes with some unwelcome software. In Nerdly News, Apple talks about the 60-hour work week and Dell gets its battery recall rolling.

Microsoft, the Department of Homeland Security, and others are warning about a new worm. AOL has released not-so-anonymous information about half a million subscribers, and the Wayback Machine takes us to a 1997 view of the Y2K problem.

The Internet Wayback Machine stores old Web content nearly all the way back to the beginning of the Web. Technology Corner showed up on the Web in 1994 or 1995 and the first entries in the Wayback machine are from 1996. Sometimes I was right.

Xandros, a Linux variant, is challenging Microsoft in the marketplace with an attempt to grab some of the 50 million people who are still using Windows 95, 98, and Me. Eweek magazine this week looked back at 25 years of personal computing. Nerdly News considers annoyances in the latest patch for Firefox and looks into the spambox.

Phantom Fiber is a company that develops applications that content providers use to make information available on mobile devices. We talk with the CEO, Jeff Halloran.

Corel Graphics Suite X3 looks like a winner, even though some long-standing bugs still haven't been resolved. Is any amount of disk space too much? The people who want to steal your financial information are trying a new trick.

A new beta version of the Windows Media Player is available. This version has an attractive look and a nice feel, but Itunes is still my primary music player. We'll also look at some oddities in technology news and a fake postcard that's a Trojan Horse. In Nerdly News, we see the end of support for Windows 9x.

This week's program is short because I'm taking some time off for the Independence Day weekend, but I wanted to pay tribute to Knight-Ridder and the San Jose Mercury News. Also this week I replaced the battery in my aging Ipod.

I've been using a high-priced FTP application for several years, but the best FTP program today is free. Updating a Microsoft application failed because Microsoft couldn't vouch for its own software. Higher speeds mean hotter laptop computers, but Apple's latest crop is hotter than ever. (Listen for the cat at 9 minutes 18 seconds.)

Nero's latest version has enough new features and improvements to get anyone's attention. It certainly got mine. We'll take a look at some of the reasons I like Itunes and at the world's largest Ipod.

Ever find yourself at a premium-content portal after starting a Google search? Now you can get the information for free! After grumbling about poor customer service recently, I had the opportunity to see customer service done well.

One of the main reasons I like the Firefox browser is all the plug-ins (extension) that are available. I'll take a look at a few of the nearly 1600 that are available. And then I'll cast a surly eye (can eyes be surly?) toward customer service. And, of course, there's Nerdly News.

If you receive a greeting card from "a family member" there's a good chance that it's not a greeting card and that it's not from a family member.

Juice is a free open-source podcast receiver, so it's free and it works on both PCs and Macs.

Some audio considerations if you want to record professional-sounding audio.