Firefox 19 released...and finally my crashing issue is solved.

For the last two versions of major Firefox releases, on one computer, Firefox continually crashed when it opened.  I figured out a way around the nagging issue, frustrated that I could not find out what was causing the issue to begin with.  Well, magically, somehow the new version of Firefox released today seemed to fix the issue once and for all.  Oh, the new firefox also has .PDF capabilities, meaning you can open up a .PDF file inside the browser instead of relying on a browser plug-in or opening a separate .PDF reader.  So we can look forward for one less use for Adobe Reader.  Bless it's bug-infested, browser crashing heart!

Best Buy declares war on showrooming!....Yeah Good Luck with that

For those who may not be aware, showrooming is the increasingly popular (I do it alot) trend of people going into Best Buy or similar stores, trying out the merchandise and then going home and doing the smart thing and ordering it online at a significantly cheaper price.  

For brick-and-mortar retailers, showrooming is an existential threat. It saps their life away when customers visit a physical store to look at products such as smartphones, but then buy online to get a better deal.  

But now, Best Buy says it has a solution to the problem: It's enacting a permanent policy to match the price offered by all local retailers and 19 online competitors. “They don’t want to lose more market share to online retailers,” University of Michigan business and law professor Erik Gordon told Bloomberg. The policy will go into effect on March 3 and includes price-matching against Amazon.com, the biggest beneficiary of showrooming.

Best Buy has little choice. It's the top victim of the behavior, according to a December poll from market research firm Harris Interactive. 

Among the consumers who said they showroom, Best Buy was their biggest resource, with 24% saying they stop at the big-box tech retailer to check out its merchandise before buying elsewhere. Wal-Mart  was the No. 2 resource, with 22% of showrooming consumers checking out products at its stores that purchase online.

It should be fun trying to get a price match at Best Buy.  Somehow I think they will still find a way to screw you out of your money.  Remember the technology trade in gimmick they had a couple of years ago?  How did that go?  I really cannot stand that place, but I must admit, they do have clean bathrooms.

Microsoft keeps compounding this Office 2013 problem....

Forgive me for harping on Office 2013, but how Microsoft has turned this into a nightmare is astonishing to me.  Today we find out that Microsoft has quietly raised prices of Office for the Mac as much as 17 percent and stopped selling multi-license packages of the application suite.

The move puts Office for Mac 2011 on the same pricing schedule as the new Office 2013 for Windows. The price increases and the disappearance of the multi-license bundles also makes Microsoft’s Office 365, a software-by-subscription deal the company has aggressively pushed, more competitive with traditional “perpetual” licenses.

Microsoft has also disposed of the multi-license editions it once sold: A three-license package of Home & Student that cost $150, and a two-license bundle of Home & Business priced at $250. To buy three licenses of Home & Student would now cost a customer $420, a 180 percent increase, while two licenses of Home & Business would run $440, or 76 percent more than the missing multi-license bundle.

The price increases and the killing of the multi-license packs were clearly intended to steer consumers and small businesses to a pair of Office 365 subscription plans.

Some reasons Why Office 2013 should be avoided

My initial problem concerns the fact that Microsoft is pushing you to an unfair subscription model that does nothing but line their pockets at the expense of your convenience.  So this week Microsoft tells us that once you install it ONCE, it is tied to that computer forever.  Need more reasons, here's another..

AutoCorrect is considered 'clutter'

One terrible call on Microsoft's part was its decision to remove AutoCorrect from Word’s Spelling Error Context Menu. In Word 2010, if you right-clicked an incorrectly spelled word, the program invited you to choose from alternate spellings. That feature is still available, but you can no longer choose to have Word  correct the misspelled word fixed automatically every time you  accidentally type it. Microsoft says that this omission reduces "clutter in the spelling error context menu” and thus helps users find popular commands faster, as well as fitting the menu on the screen much better. (Somewhat surprisingly, Word treats New Comment and Hyperlink as more popular commands than AutoCorrect for the spelling error context menu.) Regrettably, Microsoft also removed this option from the new spelling task pane.

Another week, another emergency Adobe Patch

This is why I recommend Foxit Reader...

Adobe on Saturday said it would release an emergency patch for two Reader zero-day vulnerabilities this week.

Hackers have already been exploiting the bugs using rigged PDF documents sent as email attachments.

"Adobe plans to make available updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat ... during the week of February 18, 2013," the company said in its security incident response team's blog Saturday.

An associated security advisory, first issued last Wednesday, has also been updated to reflect the impending updates to Reader for Windows, OS X and Linux.

News of the Adobe Reader vulnerabilities surfaced Feb. 13 when researchers from security vendor FireEye reported that attackers were exploiting the bugs, which exist in the latest versions of the popular PDF-viewing software.

Adobe confirmed the vulnerabilities later that same day, acknowledging that attacks were sidestepping the anti-exploit "sandbox" defense baked into Reader 10 and Reader 11.

Some security experts concluded that the attacks are on the same level as the cyber-espionage Duqu threat of 2011, and claimed that that hints at a sophisticated operation beyond the skills of most hacker gangs.

Adobe will patch two vulnerabilities in its update this week; the pair have been used in combination by hackers to circumvent the sandbox and execute other malicious code.

In lieu of a patch, Adobe urged users to upgrade to Reader 11, then turn on "Protected View," an enhancement to the sandbox that adds additional defensive features. Adobe debuted its original "Protected Mode" sandbox with Reader 10 in November 2010. It added Protected View to Reader 11 last October.

My advice...Do not buy Office 2013...it's a screw job

Microsoft yesterday confirmed that a retail copy of Office 2013 is permanently tied to the first PC on which it's installed, preventing customers from deleting the suite from one machine they own and installing it on another.

The move is a change from past Office end-user licensing agreements (EULAs), experts said, and is another way Microsoft is pushing customers, especially consumers, to opt for new "rent-not-own" subscription plans.

"That's a substantial shift in Microsoft licensing," said Daryl Ullman, co-founder and managing director of the Emerset Consulting Group, which specializes in helping companies negotiate software licensing deals. "Let's be frank. This is not in the consumer's best interest. They're paying more than before, because they're not getting the same benefits as before."

On Thursday, Microsoft confirmed that once a retail copy of Office 2013 is installed on a PC and activated—the process of entering a 25-character “key” to prove the software was legitimately obtained—it cannot be uninstalled and then re-installed on another machine owned by the customer.

Via email, Computerworld asked Microsoft, “Once an Office 2013 retail license is assigned through activation to a PC, it’s connected TO THAT PC, correct? Just as is Windows. That then means it cannot be reassigned to ANOTHER PC owned by the same individual, correct?”

The response from Microsoft’s public relations firm was simply, “Correct.”

Another question asked whether, under the retail Office 2013 EULA, customers could move the suite—and its license—to a replacement PC when the original was lost, stolen or destroyed. Microsoft reply: “No comment.”

In short, if you install it on one computer (all you are allowed to), it is tied to that computer forever.  No matter what.  It's almost criminal how unfair this is.  Buy a new computer, you have to buy another copy of Office.  So it's either this screw job, or pay yearly to rent the darn product.  Google Docs, here I come!