The Weekly Round-Up: 22.02.08

Trustworthy computing. It's a nice concept.

These days the phrase is commonly associated with Microsoft after its much trumpeted commitment to improve consumer faith in its commercial software.

The Seattle company was particularly keen to underline its commitment to reliability and security after taking a hammering from users and the industry for its track record in both areas. Bravo.

So when the company releases its first service pack for Vista, it's not unreasonable to expect the upgrade not to cause grief to your system.

Which is a shame really since this is exactly the experience of some Vista users this week. Boo.

Microsoft has stopped automatically distributing a pre-requisite piece of software for Vista Service Pack 1 following reports it had caused system problems.

Like the Round-Up said: trustworthy computing. It's a nice concept.

The company has now, and rather helpfully, posted a list of the applications that will not work or will suffer from reduced functionality after installing the SP1 update.

The sad irony is that the list of affected programs is mostly composed of security applications, such as Trend Micro Internet Security 2008.

But other applications, such as the New York Times reader, also feature on the list.

A statement from Microsoft said, apparently without irony: "Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability and feature updates for Windows Vista."

It added, again straight-faced: "A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1."

This is hardly an endorsement of Vista's ongoing credibility battle over its compatibility with third-party applications. Microsoft has also warned that the list of apps is not comprehensive.

The Seattle giant has also told users who encounter problems to turn their computers off and then on again, and if they still experience issues to upgrade their software or contact the appropriate vendor. That's assuming that SP1 didn't trash their email app, of course.

Ending on a high, the company added: "However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1." Which is nice.

On the bright side, at least one person was willing to see the silver lining in this particular cloud. IBRS analyst Joseph Sweeney said organisations are now stepping back and looking at their deployment methods.

Because the desktop market is maturing, the trend would have happened anyway, he said. But Vista's problems have acted as a catalyst.

Ah yes, that’ll be trustworthy computing in action...

Need a word with the man on the moon?

If the answer is yes, then the Round-Up has good news for you. Nasa and the British National Space Centre are preparing to test a mobile phone network for the moon, (no, not this one…).

The immediate response that probably springs to mind is 'Why?' and this is perfectly reasonable. It was the Round-Up's first thought.

After all, surely it would be better getting decent mobile access to the Home Counties and parts of west London first.

But if your immediate response was actually, 'And about bloody time, too', then you'll be delighted to hear that the space agencies have an unfeasibly good business reason for this lunar plan: the moon will most likely be partly colonised by 2020 so there'll be a captive market. Unlike the aforementioned bits of West London.

Anyway, the moon it is and the satellite system should ensure a full five-bar signal for lunar colonists living in the base Nasa wants to build at the south pole of the desolate, dusty rock. One supposes you should applaud the progress and the vision, here. No? OK.

Of course, the roaming charges don't bear thinking about. Neither does the thought of hearing the Nokia tune ring out in the Sea of Tranquillity.

The ambitious vision of the mobile's future even tops the effort that managed to get a text message to the top of Mount Everest.

Phone calls and other information would be bounced off satellites orbiting the moon for communication between colonists, the moon base and the earth.

Just why the astronaut couldn't use the built-in radio in the helmets as they did back in the days of the Apollo landings is beyond the Round-Up and certainly isn't going to stop the boffins in charge of the more-money-than-sense project spending huge piles of cash on satellites and Clangers DVDs.

The other point, made in a reader comment, is how you’d operate a mobile phone on the moon's surface wearing those thick, heavy gloves. After all you really don't want to be taking them off.

The next big interface challenge for Jonathon Ive and his team at Apple...

Is the Facebook love affair over? It certainly could be in the UK if the latest traffic figures are to be believed.

The social networking phenomenon of 2007 and Web 2.0 poster child has reported the first fall in its traffic in the UK since measuring began in 2006.

According to data from Nielsen Online, UK users fell five per cent to 8.5 million in January 2008 from 8.9 million in December 2007. That's 400,000 less people throwing sheep at each other despite the prospect of free chocolate.

This is not necessarily unexpected given Facebook's meteoric rise, although technically speaking, meteors fall crashing to the ground and don't rise.

So is this the beginning of the end for Facebook or just a temporary glitch? Here's hoping web 2.0 doesn’t turn into Bubble 2.0...

Finally this week, the Round-Up doesn’t normally report on the weird and wonderful world of eBay auctions.

Item listings for entire dinosaur skeletons, cheating boyfriends and burnt bits of toast bearing a vague resemblance to your messiah of choice are all chuckle-worthy but not usually Round-Up fodder given the sheer volume of them.

But one eBay auction did catch the Round-Up's imagination this week.

A Pittsburgh-based madman by the name of Paul Mawhinney had decided to sell his music collection. No big deal? Well it's not just any record collection - it's quite a big one.

To be exact: three million vinyl records and 300,000 CDs containing an estimated six million songs were up for grabs at the reserve price of $3m.

Around the half the CDs have apparently never been played. If you listened to all the music back to back it would take you the best part of the rest of your life.

According to the seller: "It's not a decision made lightly or without considerable soul-searching."

Although, if you were searching for soul in the monumental collection you'd find it in aisles 32 to 44.

According to his personal website, his eminently more sensible wife told him that it was either the music or the marriage after the vinyl collection reached the paltry 160,000 mark.

As a result, the collection was shifted to a climate controlled warehouse where it has since resided, lovingly maintained in perfect condition and having a profound effect on global tidal systems.

According to the listing, the haul was worth more than $50m. The owner also claimed he turned down an offer in excess of $28m around nine years ago.

The winning bid on Thursday came in at a relatively paltry $3,002,150.

A drop of around $25m in less than nine years.

This means two things. First, it's a damning indictment of the quality of music in the past decade and secondly it's going to mean Mr Mawhinney is going to get a severe kick in the arse from the long-suffering Mrs Mawhinney.

The Round-Up's guessing he's gingerly browsing one of the 48 aisles of Blues music right now before packing them up and shipping them off.

The Round-Up's guessing that packing all that vinyl is going to be a tough weekend job for Mawhinney, or at the very least a hard day's night.

Sorry...

In other news this week:

So just what was the technology glitch that caused two days of luggage chaos at Heathrow? The error left 6,000 British Airways long-haul passengers unable to get hold of luggage on flights.

If you've received a 'too good to be true' text message promising you untold wealth it's more likely to be the UK government than fraudsters. The latest attempt by Whitehall to reach the impressionable youth of today is to deluge SMS inboxes with fake scam messages. Brilliant.

Addicted to your BlackBerry? Not to worry - help is at hand!

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