Letters to PC World, April 2006

Alarm Over Copy Controls

Robert McMillan's article on Sony's antipiracy efforts ["Copy Controls: How Far Will They Go?" News and Trends, February] really hit home with me when I unsuccessfully tried to play MP3 files on my new high-end Sony DVD recorder. It won't display .jpg files either. I also bought a Sony DVD burner for my PC, and the software that came with it will work only if that burner is installed in that PC. I'll be thinking two or three times before buying any more Sony gear. I imagine even Sony TVs will have something mimicking a Homeland Security agent in the box!

Gary Keck, Las Vegas

Your article did not go nearly far enough. Consider the scariest thing of all: No antivirus or antispyware vendor warned its customers about the XCP attachment until a blogger made it public. That means that either these companies were not technically capable of spotting this threat or they spotted it but put the welfare of Sony ahead of the welfare of their own customers!

This incident clearly shows that individual users cannot trust any company to look out for them, even the companies that claim their business is looking out for us. So, is it even possible to protect ourselves anymore? If so, how?

Ronny Richardson, Southern Polytechnic State University, Marietta, Georgia

Author's response: We didn't have room to discuss this angle of the story, but see my article "Sony Rootkit: A Black Eye for Security Vendors?" for more.

Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

More Online Tech Support

Regarding "Hanging Up on Tech Support" [Consumer Watch, February]: Anne Kandra lists some great resources for people who want to help themselves. One she neglected to mention is Protonic.com.

Protonic.com has hundreds of volunteer support technicians who have particular areas of expertise. The service is free and has been around for years. Most sites that charge for help don't provide technical support anywhere near this good!

Carey Holzman, Cohost, Computer America and author of The Healthy PC (McGraw/Hill)

I found that your list of online support forums lacked one major site that should have been included. PC Help Forum, which was founded in May 2004, has a track record of providing professional, fast, and free tech support. It is an excellent site.

Ryan Stalets, Springfield, Illinois

Finding Fakes

Regarding your February article "Fakes!": The computer itself can provide certain information about its hardware. For example, Windows' Device Manager will display the names or model of installed hard drives and DVD/CD-ROM drives. If the counterfeiter hasn't modified the component's electronic ID tag, this should confirm its legitimacy.

Ken West, via e-mail

QuickBooks' Hidden Cost

Your February review of QuickBooks 2006 [Reviews and Rankings] didn't mention that the payroll function is unusable until the customer signs up for an overpriced tax table service costing at least $199 a year, which effectively doubles the cost of the software for small business.

Skip Schwarz, via e-mail

Your Own File Shredder

Andrew Brandt makes some good points in the February Privacy Watch about securely deleting personal files if you're about to recycle or donate a PC.

Spybot Search & Destroy has a built-in secure shredder. Click on Tools in the lower-left corner of the opening window and then click Secure Shredder. Simply drag files to be shredded into the window and click the Chop it away! button. The default setting overwrites the files five times, but you can easily increase that as much as you want (the U.S. Department of Defense standard is seven times).

Ron Herman, Sunnyvale, California

Author's response: Free file shredders that work great are everywhere, but for donating a PC, it's easier to make a bootable floppy or CD that overwrites the entire hard drive in one go. Spybot shreds only individual files.

Andrew Brandt

Big TVs: Consider DLP

February's "Just-Right LCD TVs" [Reviews and Rankings] continues a trend I see in both tech and mainstream media--that is, to write mainly about LCD and plasma HDTV, ignoring DLP sets. It is hard to understand why someone would spend $2000 on a 32-inch LCD HDTV when for the same money they could buy a 46-inch DLP set. For the optimum HDTV effect, you'd need to view the LCD from just a few feet away--as in a mobile home or an efficiency apartment.

Richard C. Rhodes, Honey Grove, Texas

Why Web 1.0 Isn't Right

As a Web developer myself, I agree with much of the February Full Disclosure column ["Web 2.0? First, Let's Get Web 1.0 Right!"]. Nothing irritates me more than finding a page that doesn't work as I expect. But Stephen Manes fails to recognize that every bit of coding to fix a bug on a site requires a programmer's time and effort. Many smaller companies can't afford to keep paying developers after the site is initially set up. The fixes to Web 1.0 can't just magically happen without an investment of time and money.

Also, the Web is plagued with people who think they can save on costs simply by using do-it-yourself applications and services. Web 2.0 won't change that.

George Jaros, via e-mail

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