Category Archives: In the News

Tech news and opinions

Karoo ISP screws up service policy

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Karoo, the only ISP in Hull (UK), recently screwed up its service policy, leaving a lot of press concern.

The company was recently under fire from the press, with news that it would suspend all users that illegally downloaded content from the internet. No 3-strikes policy, no warnings. Do it once, and you’re kicked off the net.

This was a big leap for a company – no other ISP in this country does such a thing. News sites became very concerned that Karoo had gone a step too far.

If you wanted to get yourself back on the internet, you would have to speak to Karoo pay a re-connection fee and sign a document promising that you will never download illegal content again.

Many people were claiming that this was totally unfair – to cut off a user with no notice at all.

However, the company has now edited their policy. The new idea is that all users are now on a 3-strikes system. A user will get 3 warning letters before being cut off by Karoo. This is an improvement, but there are still very few ISPs in this country that have this procedure.

I would hate it if my ISP cut me off with no notice whatsoever. This is not good conduct and I would be complaining if my ISP was thinking of following a procedure like that.

Windows 7 RTM complete

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Sorry I’ve been a little behind on the news lately, but I’ve just read that Microsoft completed the RTM (release to manufacturer) of Windows 7 yesterday. Yay!

It is exactly 3 months behind the official launch date of Windows 7, which gives manufacturers plenty of time to prepare for the big launch of Windows 7 on October 22nd.

Sadly, I didn’t manage to get my preorder copy of Windows 7. This means I probably won’t have my copy of Windows 7 this side of Christmas, but you never know.

Microsoft changing IE8’s default settings…

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Microsoft has altered the way Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is set up when you first run it. It’s a few minor changes, but they are very helpful if you currently have a default browser and you’re just installing IE8 because you have to (due to Windows Update).

From mid-August (so Microsoft says), there will be an update to IE8 to make this new functionality work.

From then on, when you first start Microsoft Internet Explorer, clicking ‘Use Express Settings’ will no longer automatically set Internet Explorer as the default browser. From GEEK!’s understanding, if you do want IE as the default browser, you must click ‘Choose Custom Settings’ and a screen will appear asking whether you would like to set IE as the default browser or not.

I am very glad that Microsoft is making this alteration – I’m bored of having to reset my default browser settings every time Microsoft releases a new Internet Explorer version.

It is pretty easy to work out that Microsoft is probably doing this to avoid more fines for promoting Internet Explorer too much. They have received charges for promoting Internet Explorer too much in the past, and it looks like Microsoft is having to give other browsers another chance.

First looks at the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview with screenshots

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Well, I was very pleased to receive an email from Microsoft early this morning letting me know that I’d been accepted for the invitation only Office 2010 Technical Preview. So I’ve got my copy, and I’m going to do a little review here so people can get an idea of what they are in for.

Well, to be honest, I’m pretty impressed with it. The GUI is pretty similar to Office 2007’s, but there are some pretty cool new features that have really brushed up the usability of Office. The image below shows a typical new Word document in Office 2010:

office2010

If you view the image full size (click it), you’ll see the ribbon from Office 2007 has gone – hoorah! It’s been replaced with a new button with the Office logo, which is a different colour for each piece of Office software. Click it, and you get a handy little menu of Options. Here’s what it looks like in Word…

2010menu

It’s quite cool. Anyway, that’s enough of a taster for now. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to do a series of blog posts outlining the highlights of Office 2010, so stay tuned to GEEK!.

VLC Media Player officially hits 1.0 after 13 years of work!

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Wow! After 13 years of long development, VLC Media Player has finally reached version 1.0. VLC is well known as a free media player that can decode many formats of video. It even plays a lot of HD content, and best of all – it’s totally open source.

The project was first started back in 1996, and ever since it has proven very popular to the general public.

I remember when I first started using VLC many years ago – it’s always been great at decoding weird and wonderful video formats. There isn’t any other freeware around that has the capabilities of VLC.

The VideoLAN website claims that the new version fixes a number of bugs, adds a range of new features, and adds even more codecs that can be used with VLC.

I don’t think I’ve ever known a piece of software that took so long to reach version 1.0 – but what a great piece of software to have the honour of taking 13 years to reach a 1.0 version.

I’m very glad that the developers of VLC are going to continue work with VLC – it’s a wonderful piece of software that is continuously expanding.

If you’d like a copy of the new 1.0 version, you can grab it for free (of course) from the VideoLAN website. If you’ve never tried it before, you’ll be amazed at what it can do.