Buggy new version of Microsoft Defender: Defender was a good program for catching spyware, not so anymore IMHO .

Microsoft deactivated Windows Defender and required download of a new version January 1 (to make it Vista compatible?). So I downloaded it, updated it, and ran it, and it seemed slower and less effective than previous version, so I properly uninstalled it from my Windows XP Hard Drive.

One minor problem, I couldn't boot into Windows XP anymore, it would hang on startup. Eventually after booting into Safe mode (F8 on a PC, rather than SHIFT key on a Mac, neither of which work with wireless keyboard), and running MSCONFIG, I discovered Microsoft has a buggy Defender uninstaller, leaving behind a startup command for Defender, which naturally would hang not finding the program, and apparently not error trapped for that eventuality.

Why buy VISTA now ? When I attend a Microsoft Product Launch next week, they'll give me propaganda, lunch and a free copy of MS Office 2007 Professional. Then they'll tell me the secret web site to download a 180 day licensed copy of Vista. Likely after 180 days, majors bugs will have been patched, and sales and/or rebate promotions will have occurred. Also one can buy "OEM" copies of Vista for substantially less than "Retail" copies and still be Legal.

My Cingular billing issues are nothing compared to this poor gentleman, who Cingular declared Guilty until proven innocent. Story here.

If Microsoft redesigned the Ipod, here's what the box would look like: See it here on YouTube

Forty Year Jail term for being in wrong place at wrong time. A substitute teacher was convicted because of pop-up porno ads in the room she was teaching that day; and the defense was prevented from explaining everything. Read this sad story here:

Followup: IT Manager sort of accepts blame. Story here.

The History of AT&T : Told here.

Cingular tried to CRAM my bill: Whoops charges, where when you call in they'll remove the charge, but is it worth the grief, and then they pocket millions. Three months ago they falsely charged me for using their 411 service, now at $1.79 per call. It's more like free if you use 1-800-FREE411. A phone call to Cingular's 611 and a short discussion got that charge removed. This month I got charged for using "data", which is nigh impossible, as I haven't subscribed to their data service, and if tried to use it, I'd get "Connection Failed", once again a call to their 611 number got the charge removed, again after some discussion with the representative, who is trained to be obnoxious. A call to senior Cingular management got an admission, that "Sometimes" errors occur.

I could like Seagate: I had two 300 Gig Seagate IDE Hard Drives die simultaneously on me. They were different batches, one made in China, one in Singapore. Seagate drives now come with 5 year warranty, and Seagate goes by serial number, no proof of purchase required. So I went to the Seagate website, got an RMA, sent the drives in. In less than 2 weeks I received back two refurbished Seagate drives. And they were 400 Gig models.

Steve over hypes again: The new iphone looks like a great gadget, but its not the 5 years ahead of everything Steve says it is. Looks like it could be only one year ahead of this puppy. And in the rush to get the iphone to market it has no GPS applications, which it should have the horsepower for.