News Den
To Flash or Not to Flash...
June 7, 2010 by Alan Wilcox
Adobe has, for some time now, had its "go 'rounds" with Apple after comments suggested Adobe's Flash would be better put out to pasture. This perhaps is a difficult enough argument to win for Adobe when it appears HTML 5 has the ability to do pretty much everything Flash can but at open source prices. Worse, even long time near enemies, Microsoft and Apple, have joined together with drumbeats in favor of HTML 5 over Flash. As if all of that was not bad enough for Adobe, a recent vulnerability in Flash appears to provide a complete resupply and rearmament for the Apple-Microsoft alliance.
One thing users should be aware of is that the vulnerability in Flash appears to come from maliciously designed PDF files. In many ways so like the virus/malware issues associated with opening email attachments, user's computers only become infected after opening the PDF file. With that in mind, just like my ongoing warnings about opening files and attachments in emails and chat applications, the user just needs to use a bit of caution to avoid falling victim.
Of course, this brings up another interesting dilemma for Web designers and their clients. Should sites be designed using Flash content at all? Or, will designers begin to recommend avoiding Flash altogether in favor of the upcoming, assumed standard, HTML 5?
Flash Flaw Gives Critics New Ammunition
Adobe Warns Of Zero-Day Flaw In Flash Player, Reader, Acrobat
Windows 7 Destroying Laptop Batteries?
February 9, 2010 by Alan Wilcox
Apparently, there is a dispute going on between some users and Microsoft over an alleged battery issue (Computer World Article by Gregg Keiser) where users claim the new operating system is rendering their batteries useless. Even upon replacement, the new batteries also do not work in these systems. One user took it a step further and actually replaced the Windows 7 OS with Linux, but to no avail.
But, as long as we are throwing out lots of anectdotal evidence, I will throw in my own two cents worth. I recently upgraded a laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7 out of curiousity related to the past claims of Vista being battery hoggish. Newer reports even suggested Windows 7 had improved in the power consumption arena over Vista. In order to make a fair comparison, I actually timed how long I could typically run this laptop with Vista, and times ranged from about 40 minutes to over an hour depending on what I was doing. I hoped Windows 7 would somehow miraculously improve that time to, maybe, double that...or at least something substantial and obvious. Instead, the reality is I have seen no noticeable difference, the laptop's battery life still only lasting about 40 minutes to an hour, again dependent on how I am using it.
However, in defending itself from these new allegations Windows 7 consumes batteries like Steven King's Langoliers, Microsoft has stated that there is no way for its OS to interact that deep into the hardware realm. That argument is likely a valid point, and a little research into the interaction between hardware and software reveals that the system BIOS and drivers act as the interface between hardware and operating system.
But, rather than looking at things that deeply, I would recommend using a few basic troubleshooting methods. First, remember that I am using Windows 7 on a laptop with no ill results (not improved over Vista, either, but successfully functioning just the same). These users state that, even upon replacement with a new battery, their systems still do not work. But, to prove that this is even a battery issue at all, perhaps we need to try to take the same battery and place it in another computer. Perhaps this is truly a hardware issue, a defective motherboard, a faulty charger, who knows? The point is, unless we can duplicate the event on numerous computers, we cannot automatically assume Windows 7 is at fault, even though blaming Microsoft for everything that goes wrong with computers still remains as popular as blaming George Bush for the remainder of the world's problems. So, the point is, are we interested in actually determining the source of a problem or is it more fun to continue feeding the scapegoat? Since the problem clearly is not happening on all systems, I would almost guarantee the problem is hardware, driver, or BIOS related, each of which Microsoft does not typically control or write. Troubleshooting is not about jumping to conclusions. Instead, it is successful when tied to a systematic approach to vetting out the real culprit so we can solve the issue and move on.