Geek Rant dot org

Mon 2005-11-21

Quick review: Accidental Empires

Filed under: — daniel @ 20:11

Cover of Accidental EmpiresAccidental Empires by Robert Cringely: Full of interesting and amusing anecdotes about the start of the modern PC era, with some of Cringely’s wild theories thrown in. The book is about ten years old now, and some of his predictions about the (then) future of computing show he’s probably a better storyteller than he is prophesiser. But it’s certainly got some gems in it. Given some of the stuff he writes about the industry’s major players (Jobs, Gates, Ballmer, etc), I’m almost surprised they agreed to talk to him subsequently for the TV version. A good read.Thumbs up!

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Windows Shared Computer Toolkit

Filed under: — daniel @ 07:10

Microsoft has available the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP. Mostly designed to protect computers that are used by the public, it provides a higher level of security, such as restricting some users further from fiddling with system settings.

I wonder if it gets around some of the issues of most users not running as Administrator. I still haven’t found a satisfactory way of running MS Train Simulator except as Admin.

It also has something called Windows Disk Protection, which means any changes to the disk are lost on the next reboot. Could be handy. Of course, a less-than-scrupulous person might use it for wiping out expiring Shareware needed only sporadically. But a more legitimate use would be for trying beta software, to ensure your machine was in a pristine state afterwards.

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