Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is going to suggest a new board of directors for the shareholder’s meeting on the 3rd of July. Mr Icahn has said that the shareholders (himself included, owning $1 billion worth) should have been given the chance to vote on the future of the company during the Microsoft negotiations, and felt the offer put on the table was more than good enough to be accepted by Yahoo. If this move works, does it mean the new board will go to Microsoft, cap-in-hand asking for renewed negotiations?

Spy equipment is within the reach of anyone now as technology has become cheaper and smaller, gone are the days when you would have to fork out £3,000 for a miniature video camera. Now you can simply visit our industrious friends in China to get your hands on some really cool gadgets.

The “Spy Tie”, featured to the right, comes complete with a video recorder you pop into your pocket to capture the images from the tiny camera hidden in the tie. Although, by the picture, why you would want to take video of two people messing about with shaving foam is beyond me - unless it was going to be aired after midnight. On board memory is 1Gb, which is expandable with a memory card too. Other examples from this company are a packet of chewing gum with an inbuilt video camera, spy “sunglasses” that shoot video of your peripheral vision and various wireless recording devices. I spent most of my time wondering why I would want any of these things, but still felt myself wanting them anyway!

As the ad-campaign goes - PC World. Or maybe not for much longer by the look of things.

The writing is on the wall for the UK computer chain PC World this morning, after the group DSGi, who look after PC World amongst other stores, announced massive losses. Struggling to keep up with the changing market and customer needs, dividends have been slashed and a re-structuring is on the cards. As well as PC World getting a facelift, which will cost £110 million in investment, DSGi will be closing almost half of it’s Dixons stores nationwide - as the leases for the buildings expire. There is no mention of closing PC World stores, although I’m sure if they are running at a loss without an easy turnaround the easiest thing will be to just close them or to relocate. Watch this space!

Every now and again, two of my favourite subjects come together (No, not blackmail and hard discs) - Technology and Motorsports.

Formula 1 star of the McLaren-Mercedes team, Lewis Hamilton, has been the focus of a blackmail attempt by a man in Germany, named simply “Dieter.” Dieter somehow obtained a hard drive, that had supposedly been disposed of some months before, that contained documents and other personal information. For those who are unfamiliar with the McLaren-Mercedes scandal of last year, the team were found guilty of using secrets from another team to improve their own car - and this hard drive could possibly had more such evidence on it. Trying to sell the hard drive to the German motorsport magazine, “Bild”, Dieter was arrested by police after the magazine tipped off the authorities, as reported by the Daily Telegraph today.

So how do you properly and permanently remove sensitive information from your hard disc?

Remember - when you delete things in Windows the data is usually still there - just because you can’t access the information doesn’t mean somebody else won’t be able to. The very nature of deleting a file just means renaming the first character of the filename, to let the system know the space it takes up can be used for new files - and the data is still there until new files are written in the same place. And even if the space the file used to occupy is overwritten with different files, there are techniques that can be employed to find out what used to be on the surface of the disc. Once you know this, you need something a little better than the recycle bin in windows to remove your sensitive data, and there are three methods you can use to do it:

The first way is with a program that allows you to securely delete files - rather than by using the recycle bin in Windows, download Eraser. It has a drag and drop interface that allows you to do a multiple-pass wipe so that the bytes the file occupies get overwritten properly, making it practically impossible to retrieve the data that used to be your file. Amongst others, by default, it uses the “Gutmann” method of wiping that employees 35 separate passes of specially selected data to make sure nobody can retrieve the information, chemically, from the drive. This should be enough if you just need to remove the odd file that’s a bit sensitive. It is geared towards doing things in batches, so you could drag files you want to remove into the program and before you log out, process them all in one go. This takes care of single file deletes.

The second way is a little more abstract, and Eraser is up to the task of removing this type of data too. Remember when your files are removed, they aren’t actually erased, the space is allocated back to the system to write files into? Baring this in mind, all the files you’ve deleted previously, will have data scattered all over the drive, in places ready to be overwritten, but for whatever reason the system hasn’t got around to using yet. So the second method is to wipe your free space on the drive. Every byte that isn’t allocated to a file will be subjected to the same rigorous treatment, using the same methods.

When you’ve come to the point when you’re ready to throw the hard drive away and want to be sure there’s nothing left on it, the last method to remove data is to wipe the whole drive. And the best way to do this is to melt it down! Failing that, if you don’t have a kiln in your house, try DBAN (Darik’s Boot And Nuke). Download DBAN, burn it to a CD, boot from that CD and you will be able to wipe any drive in the system with multiple passes of random data. Eraser, above, also supports wiping whole drives and can create a “Nuke Disc” to boot from. DBAN, however is a personal favourite, and I’ve never had problems with using it. This should securely remove the data - although of course, nothing is as secure or cool as melting it - plus you get the added advantage of doing something cool to video and put on youtube!

An odd one, this one. Microsoft filed a patent on December 20th, 2006, for a device called the “Guardian Angel”. The idea is to have a device to detect the number of people in a room, single them out and recognise them. And then gather information on them, presumably from the net, about previous convictions and stuff.. Hmmm, not saying that people need to be safe, but two things come to mind straight away:

1) If there are dangerous people in the room, shouldn’t they be in another room, like, oh I dunno, a jail or something?

2) If the device flags someone as “dangerous” I guess it doesn’t matter if that person has already served his time, and probably gone through rehabilitation? The person could be completely different to his criminal record now.

So I think I’m saying this is a massive invasion of privacy, and straight away sets a machine up to pass judgement on someone else in the room. Surely this is wrong? The original article by slashdot can be found here. Another interesting feature of the Guardian Angel was a “heart monitor” like people need a machine to tell them they’re having a heart attack, or that they’re dead? Well I guess it hasn’t stopped Microsoft in the past for providing “features” to things that they think the buying public need - just look at Vista..!

In an experiment to find out the popularity of different operating systems with illegal file sharers, I thought I would query isohunt.com to give me the answer..

There are two numbers associated with every download. Firstly you have the number of seeds. These people have a complete copy of the files, and are purely uploading them to share with others. Secondly you have the leechers. These second type of people are both downloading and uploading - although they don’t have complete copies of the files. So seeds are the people allowing others to get access to the files, and are an indication of interpreted demand (how much they themselves think people might want the OS), and also past demand, while the leechers are an indication of the current demand. Or at least, that’s how I see it. So how did the different OS’s fair?

Windows Vista

Vista is, surprisingly after all the bad press, one of the most sought after OS’s in my test! With 1142 people actively trying to get hold of this particular version, the demand is higher than any other. Interestingly there are only 303 seeds. This (rightly or wrongly) says to me that not many people are hanging onto it once they get it!

Windows XP

In a not-so-surprising twist - Windows XP has the largest number of seeds for any OS. At 656, a lot of people are hanging on to this. Is it because they’ve read the news and think people will want it more? Or are they just lazy? Equally as interesting in the number of leechers, at 152, it appears not many people actually want it. Now you could argue it’s because most of us have a copy now, of one description or another..

OSX Leopard

Apple’s latest OS is looking strong amongst the Windows contenders. A lot stronger than recent years, which probably shows a move away from Microsoft for the home user towards something a little more intuitive. I’m sure all you Mac users out there will have smug faces on now..

Windows 98

Wow - now this is pretty cool. 10 years after it’s official launch, Windows 98 is still going strong with a lot of interest. 202 people have the OS available, although demand is a little low with a meagre 58 leechers.

Windows 2000

Demand is pretty low for this OS - a lot lower than I thought it would be. I was expecting half to a third that of Windows XP. I thought Windows 2000 was a solid OS and I’ve still got it running on a few PCs at work - and it never gives me any problems.

OSX Tiger

Incompatibility problems with PC architecture probably are the reasons this OS is so far down the list. Not a bad OS, and not particularly old, I think it’s just the superior Leopard that’s always more likely to be a hit with intel-based PC pirates looking for a change.

Windows 95

20 Seeds? Who are these people? Sure Windows 95 was groundbreaking, but only for a couple of years until Windows 98 came along! And that lonely leecher, downloading it in the hope it will work on the old 486 he found in his dad’s garage. I have one piece of advice for you my friend - Linux. It’s a question, and answer and a solution all in one word.

Windows 3.1

I was half expecting a “no show” for 3.1. How surprised I was to find, although demand is 0, there are still people that have a copy of the OS on their systems for anyone that might be passing - and only 5 less than Windows 95! I can’t think of a use for this OS nowadays of course, the hardware it was destined to run on has probably rotted away by now at the bottom of some garbage heap somewhere.

Windows ME

No graphics for this one. Why? I couldn’t find it! Please don’t think I want a link to it, I made sure I did the most basic search, hopefully copying what a normal pirate would type into the search box. I guess you could try different search terms, but why would you repeatedly try to find this OS? Is this the biggest OS mistake Microsoft ever made? Or is that happening now?

So what does this all mean?

Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure.. On the face of it, the demand for Vista is strong. Windows XP has a strong perceived demand, by the seeds that are keeping it available for other potential downloaders. Windows 98 is still “downloadble” now, 10 years later, and Windows 95 is just a poor cousin of Windows 98, as we’ve always thought. Windows 3.1 is available for the hardcore elite, and Windows ME will always be the mutated-dog-from-the-fly-2 we love to look in disgust at.

Finally, I thought this wouldn’t be a balanced test, without the most talked-about OS amongst geeks - although it is also worth noting that this is a free OS - read into that what you will with the figures, but I presume it’s because people have 0 hangups about downloading a free OS, where they may have moral issues with pirating software.. Anyway, ladies and gentleman, I give you:

Ubuntu 7.10

How many seeds????

Firstly, sorry for the delay - I’ve been suffering from something horrible for the past couple of days - hopefully you can’t transmit viruses through the keyboard - human ones at least..

In what seems like now, a problem synonymous with Microsoft releasing a service pack, it appears that the lastest offering for Windows XP has a few problems of it’s own. Within a short time of the service pack hitting the web, users were complaining of lock-ups and random reboots. Now I don’t want to appear to be a person with clear thinking, but surely with a PC you should expect it? I mean by the very nature of the beasts, they are fitted with an infinite combination of different hardware and software no? So surely there will be a few bases left uncovered..? Read Information Week’s interpretation. Of course if you’re one of the “brave” you can get your copy here.

Those of you who use the McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin for Firefox, will be aware of how McAfee are helping to protect users from malicious sites. The plugin notifies users with a simple colour coding that allows users to visually work out if a website has been reported for malware or spyware attacks. The plugin works with community support - reports being fed to McAfee from users with comments posted on the site’s page detailing the problems they faced.

Well now, McAfee have teamed up with Yahoo, to do a very similar thing on their search results. When you search for a term using Yahoo’s engine, there will be an indication next to the site that identifies it as malware/spyware, if it’s been reported that the website has been up to no good. This should hopefully prevent people from clicking on the link, or at least, make them find out why the site has gained such a reputation. If you already have McAfee’s SiteAdvisor plugin installed, all search engine results are automatically checked anyway, so you won’t gain much. And you have the added advantage of being notified of a malicious site when you’re browsing it. At least the Yahoo deal is a step in the right direction. Read the Yahoo! press release.

Microsoft has backed down and walked away from its Yahoo takeover plans. Not prepared to part with the sort of cash Yahoo were after, Steve Balmer is quoted as saying, “Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer.”

This really surprises me - I thought that the offer would either be accepted, or Microsoft were going to go hostile - walking away was never on the cards for me. So after months of anticipation, lots of discussion (both with the companies themselves, and globally on blogs, podcasts, even mainstream news) the deal has fallen through, and both parties are going their separate ways. A question still remains though - What sort of damage has this whole situation down to the stability of Yahoo? Read the Microsoft press release here.

When I found out all I could think was “Finally!” It’s such a great site, but so stuck in the 90’s with it’s subscription based revenue model. Now things have changed, rather than having to subscribe to send a friend a message, you can send them for free! This puts Friends Reunited more in line with the Facebook’s and Myspace’s of this world, and in some respects a lots better. No adding friends, or going to specific pages to find people - they’re already there.

This rethink, coupled with the site makeover has renewed my interest in the site immediately. After casual logins (probably 4 or 5 times over the last year) I can see myself checking up on the site more and more now. Of course, I don’t know if this means the people that are current subscribers get a refund. Perhaps if someone out there is a subscriber, you can let me know.