I’ve had various posts recently about people that share my name. It’s really interesting to see other people that share my name. It’s intriguing to think about the idea that there’s another person with your name out there in the world living their own life. Is there anything that connects you to them other than their name?
The downside of people having your name is when people may do a search for you online, they may get some results that they didn’t expect (which could happen either way) and results for someone that’s not you.
A new website, ClaimID, has been developed to let a person claim their online identity by identifying and tagging various webpages that are about them. You can either specify that a specific page is definitely about you, or combat a page that is definitely not you, even though it’s your name.
Here’s my official “Jason Bean” page. You’ll also notice the MyClaimID badge over there on the right now too.
An interesting note, the Jason Bean second from the right is a fireman in Laconia, NH. My wife and I honeymooned in New Hampshire in that area. One night we were at a little Mexican restaurant / bar place and there was a plaque on the wall that a “Joe Bean” had won a jalapeno pepper eating contest there in 1984 or something. My grandfather’s, who I never really knew, name was Joe Bean. Isn’t that weird?
On a side note, don’t you just love the Citibank Identity Theft commercials?
I’ve written a number of articles on Microsoft’s OneCare service that’s been in development. I’ve been very pleased overall with the service and functionality. Plus, for me, having the software integrate so tightly with the existing OS, seems like a no brainer. My other complaint is that Symantec and McAfee’s applications seem to just hog WAY too many resources.
Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft’s effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks.
Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers, has been a near-constant target of worms, viruses and other attacks, hurting countless users and forcing Microsoft to invest heavily in patching vulnerabilities and improving flaws.
I think it’s a great move for them to release OneCare for a single price, and be able to use it on up to 3 computers for the same price. For someone like myself who have multiple computers at home, the idea of purchasing multiple copies of crucial software like this suite of security services isn’t something I was looking forward to investing in. To the point that I’d avoid installing an item or just run the risk of things not going as planned. I believe this is part of the 70% of the market that Microsoft feels is their main target.
My only complaint has been that they’d expand the features and functionality of their back-up process.
Source: Microsoft launches security for Windows
Thomas Hawk provides some great user-experience insight into his opinions of Microsoft Media Player 11 beta.
If anyone is going to do a good job of testing the boundaries of an application to handle numerous (yeah, even tens of thousands) of files, it would be Thomas Hawk. Now, don’t think Thomas is reviewing this as a biased opinion. At first, he was very excited about the promise of WMP11, but has now been disappointed.
Specifically, Hawk isn’t happy with how WMP11 works with his Media Center PC.
I confirmed with a Microsoft employee that the new beta will do nothing to speed up your large digital library in Media Center. This is unfortunate. I was also told by the same Microsoft employee though that the large digital library problem with Media Center has actually been addressed in Vista and that the most recent Vista build is probably stable enough to run and that I should be able to test this out and confirm this. Microsoft’s PR agency Waggener Edstrom is sending me the most recent version of Vista and when I get it I will check this out. But in the meantime I’d recommend you *not* install the Windows Media Player 11 beta if you are using a Media Center PC.
This is again another oddity to me by Microsoft. I can understand Microsoft not being able to test and verify how things run on the thousands of other applications installed side-by-side with Microsoft apps on people’s machines, but you’d think they’d at least work well and without a hitch with each other. I’ll still give Microsoft some leeway due to hardware configuration variations, but still I’m expecting a little more with seeming, simple software issues.
I’ve downloaded the WMP11 beta as well, and have been overall accepting of it. I, by no means, am pushing it to it’s limits though. Hopefully due to the fact that it’s still in beta, some of these hurdles and challenges will be alleviated in the final release.
Here are some more reviews of Media Player 11 beta that Thomas Hawk mentioned in his post.
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