Deep in the Congoo

Have you ever followed a search engine link only to find that the website you've gone to has "premium content" that requires a subscription fee that you must pay before you'll be allowed to see the article you want? Newspapers and magazines pay writers and editors to prepare content, so they can't be expected to give it away for free. But if you're doing research that takes you to a premium content link that you won't need on an ongoing basis, will you be willing to pony up $25 or $50 or $100? Most people won't. A new service called Congoo might have a solution.

Congoo will give you free access to premium content. It's legal and the providers of the premium content support the idea. So now you're really suspicious, right?

Here's the trick: Congoo doesn't give you unlimited permanent access to premium content. It provides access to several articles free every month from each of our partner publishers. What's the definition of "several"? That number varies by publisher.

That doesn't mean there's a problem with Congoo. But it does mean that you have to understand that you don't have unlimited free access to all the premium content on the Web.

But if you need one-time (or occasional) access to Financial TImes, Newsday, AdWeek, or any of the other publications, shown above, Congoo can provide that access for free.

The problem for content providers

People who write for newspapers, magazines, radio, and television expect to be paid. They have this expectation because when the visit the grocery store, McDonald's, the shoe store, or the local bar, those folks expect to be paid for the products they provide. But people who visit media sites expect to get the information for free.

Radio and television (with the exception of public radio and public television) work on the advertising model. Listeners and viewers are willing to accept ads in return for the content. Newspapers and magazines generally work on a modified version of the advertising model: Part of the cost is paid by subscription and the rest is paid by advertisers. In the case of controlled circulation publications and free newspapers, the advertising component pays the entire cost.

Some people don't see the value of the information, particularly if they need something from a publication only once or twice. Congoo might change those perceptions. If you need information from, say, the Financial Times only once, you wouldn't subscribe. But if you find that the Financial Times routinely has information you consider to be useful, your perception may change.

If a publication allows 5 free viewings per month, that might be enough to convince some people that the cost of the subscription is worth paying to gain full access to the publication's information. This could work for publications such as the Financial Times or AdWeek, for example, but might not be as successful for the Virginia Pilot or Harvard Health Publications.

If you want to give it a try, visit www.Congoo.com.

Customer service done the right way

Last week I grumbled about T-Mobile's customer communications, or lack of it. I did this because I'm involved in marketing and communications and because T-Mobile is a high-tech company that comes up short on the "touch" part of the business. This week, it's a different kind of story. There are advantages in buying a computer from HellPaqWay (a combination of HP, Dell, Compaq, and Gateway), but there also advantages in dealing with a local assembler who has a good reputation and uses quality parts.

Not long ago, I upgraded my computer to a dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM and a couple of big Seagate SATA drives. On Friday evening, some newly downloaded music wasn't playing well in Itunes. At the same time, the mouse became "sticky". My music is all on an external USB device and the mouse is a USB device. Might that be the problem? I swapped mice. No change. Copied the music to one of the internal drives. No change. Tried playing music with known-good files. No change.

I quickly copied the files I knew I'd need during the weekend off onto a USB drive so that I could take them to the Mac and work on them.

Then I started seeing blue screens and the occasional black screen of death. In some cases, everything was fine on restart, but sometimes I'd go through 2 or 3 blue screens or black screens just to get the machine to start. Clearly there was a serious problem and it appeared to be a hardware issue.

At 2:30pm on Saturday (Memorial Day holiday weekend, I should point out) I sent a note to the company's support address, expecting not to hear anything until Tuesday. Ten minutes later, I had a reply: We're closing at 3, but here's my home e-mail address. Try swapping out the memory modules to see if that makes a difference.

I removed the B module and tried restarting. Crash. I removed the A module and placed the former B module in the A slot. Initially the machine crashed, but I tried again. Success. No crashes. Seven hours later, I shut the machine down and went to bed. There had been no problems.

I felt a little stupid that I hadn't thought of swapping memory modules on my own, but the problems I was experiencing looked like they involved the USB hubs or the sound subsystem. Memory is easy enough to test, and I should have done that on my own.

Sunday, the computer ran fine all day. In the morning, I received an e-mail from another technician: I'm in the office today and will be here some of Monday if you want to bring the computer by, I'll run some tests. Just try to imagine that happening with CompUSA. I replied to that e-mail with a summary of the testing I'd done. The problem is clearly a failed memory module.

A follow-up response from the company: They'll replace both modules because having exactly matched DIMMs is important. They don't have any of those exact modules in stock at their main location, but they'll check the other location and, if there are none there, they'll order them on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I have a computer that's running just fine and they continue to have a very happy customer.

"They", by the way, is TCR Computers in Pickerington (a Columbus, Ohio suburb): www.TCR.com. They have built their reputation the way they build their machines – with care. And not once did I hear or read any canned comments about wanting to provide "World Class Customer Service" or "meeting and exceeding" my needs. TCR doesn't need to tell people that they're providing outstanding support for one simple reason: They are providing outstanding support.

Nerdly News

Something wicked this way comes

Somebody is working on something nasty. Antivirus companies are seeing an increase in activity that suggests an attack in imminent. I've seen, and you probably have too, messages "from" you and "to" you that contain nothing more than a random string of numbers. This will turn nasty sooner or later. Probably sooner.

Panda Software started warning people on June 7th: Panda Software Labs has detected numerous cases worldwide of users receiving e-mails with their own e-mail address in the sender and recipient fields. The HTML text and subject of these messages are apparently made up of random numbers.

These e-mails are not actually sent from the user's address. The sender uses an address spoofing technique to disguise the origin of the message. The current batch of messages contain no virus or other malware. But what is worrying, says Panda, is that the receipt of one of these messages may imply that the e-mail address is part of a database used for malicious purposes by cybercrooks – such as sending spam, phishing attacks, or distribution of malware.

According to Luis Corrons, director of Panda Software Labs, “The most likely scenario is that a group of hackers are checking the validity of the e-mail addresses in the database. By sending these messages, they can determine whether or not the addresses are active and remove those that don’t work."

I've seen indications this week that some ISPs are blocking messages when they come from the recipient's address. The ISPs may think they're being pro-active, but automatically killing such messages can be a problem. Many people, including me, routinely send messages to ourselves to transfer files from the office to home and vice versa.

Those responsible for the current batch of messages are trying to evade mail filter systems users may have installed, assuming that nobody filters out their own e-mail address.

Caution is of critical importance. If you didn't send yourself a message, don't open a message that comes from you. And, of course, you should make sure that your anti-spam, anti-phishing, antivirus, anti-spyware applications are all up to date.

Keep in mind that the people who launch these attacks are no longer motivated by destroying date or causing your network to grind to a halt. They're looking for financial gain that they'll realize by dropping malware onto your computer.

“We don't know when the attack will take place or what type of attack will be – it is best to take preventive action. Those who have received a message like this should be on their guard, as it is a sign that their e-mail address is in the wrong hands,” said Corrons.

Panda Software offers its free online virus and spyware scanner, Panda ActiveScan, at http://www.activescan.com. If you don't already have scanning software on your computer, drop by and have Panda scan your machine. Unfortunately, this process requires a Microsoft ActiveX tool and will work only with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Try it with Firefox and you'll get an error message.

Bah! Find a way to do this with something other than ActiveX.

Something Vista this way comes (If I do that again, Ray Bradbury is going to demand a royalty.)

If you're brave enough, you can download a beta version of Microsoft's next Windows operating system to give it a try. If you're thinking of doing that, keep this in mind: Never test a new operating system on a "production" machine. A production machine is any computer that you need for day-to-day work. Operating system tests should be conducted only on spare computers. So if you don't have a spare computer lying around, skip the test drive.

I don't have a spare lying around, so I won't be testing it.

Those who are interested will need a magic decoder ring. Microsoft established a Vista beta testing program and those who are enrolled can obtain the latest beta. Those who are not enrolled will need to do a little more:

• If you've paid for a Microsoft Developers Network subscription, you'll be able to get the Vista beta at no additional charge. Membership is $800 to $10,000 and needs to be renewed annually.
• You might try signing up as a Windows beta tester to see if you'll be accepted. This is free. (Well, it's free if you have a spare computer lying around. If not, you'll need to buy one.)
• Vista beta 2 is also available under the Customer Preview Program. Then you'll be able to download the code or ask Microsoft to send you a CD.

The download isn't trivial. If you have a relatively fast cable connection (3Mbps, for example), the download will complete in about 3 hours. If you're foolish enough to try this with an ISDN connection, plan to spend more than 60 hours. And for dial-up, it'll take about 5.5 days.

This is the only ad you'll ever see on this site. It's for my website host, BlueHost in Orem, Utah. Over the past several years, they have proven to be honest, reliable, and progressive. If you need to host a website, please click the banner below to see what BlueHost has to offer.

TechByter Worldwide receives a small advertising payment for each new client that signs up with BlueHost but I would make the same recommendation even if the affiliate program didn't exist. (If you don't see a banner ad above and you would like to know more, this link takes you to BlueHost.)

Annoying legal disclaimer

My attorney says I really need to say this: The TechByter website is for informational purposes only. I assume no responsibility for its accuracy, although I do my best. The information is subject to change without notice. Any actions you take based on information from the radio program, the podcast, or from this website are entirely at your own risk. Products and services are mentioned for informational purposes only and their various trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. TechByter cannot provide technical support for products or services mentioned.