April 14, 2006, 2:04 PM PDT
Patch IE, Firefox, and Opera--now
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

No matter what Internet browser you use--Internet Explorer, Firefox, or even Opera--there are new security updates available, and it's a good idea to patch your Internet browser today. On Tuesday, April 11, 2006, Microsoft rolled out a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer that addresses 10 known vulnerabilities. On Thursday, April 13, 2006, Mozilla offered a patch for Firefox 1.5 that addresses up to 21 vulnerabilities (most of which were not public before the announcement). Also on Thursday, Opera announced a patch for a vulnerability affecting Cascading Style Sheets. Why is this important? Virus writers sometimes take advantage of the delay between a patch's availability and one's ability to install the updates to release a new virus or worm; security vendor Qualys reports that it currently takes an average of 19 days for half of the vulnerable computers to become fully patched, so that's a window of about two weeks in which virus writers can run amok. Don't be one of the unlucky ones--update your browser today.

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April 14, 2006, 1:56 PM PDT
Lincoln shows off MKS, MKX, and MKZ
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

For the past year, Lincoln has been on a rebranding kick, getting rid of names for its cars in favor of letter designations beginning with MK. It had three of its recently MK-branded cars on display at the New York Auto Show. The Lincoln Zephyr, which launched last year, got its name pulled in favor of MKZ for the 2007 model year. A small SUV, the Aviator, had been set to launch, when Lincoln swapped its name for MKX. A new full-size sport-luxury sedan, the MKS, seems to have been given its letter designation before a formal name was applied. Lincoln may be onto something here, as names tend to get associated with a decade and become dated. How could an El Camino be anything but a car from the 1970s? Of course, Lincoln sells so many Town Cars and Navigators that it won't mess with its branding anytime soon.

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April 14, 2006, 11:39 AM PDT
The Evite of the everyday
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Between the personal calendar functionality of a tool like the new Google Calendar and the invitation-driven architecture of Evite, there's an organizational gap. When you want to set up a group meeting and figure out which days people prefer (not just which ones show open in their calendars), who's bringing salad and who's bringing lasagna, and other organizational tidbits that make a get-together work, most calendar and invitation apps fall short.

The new Web service Grouptivity is designed to help you set up these group events. It's essentially a polling engine. You set up your event and the questions online, and people reply via e-mail forms. Its templates are designed around social events: book clubs, baby showers, HOA meetings, and so on.

It is not a calendar system, but it is a handy tool for figuring out whether your book club prefers Rowling to Calvino, and it can also be use for recurring events. You could set it up to automatically send reminders and sign-ups for the snacks for a monthly club get-together.

To be even more useful, I'd like to see Grouptivity (or work-alike functions) built into a calendar system, such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar or one of the other clever new online calendars: 30 Boxes, Airset, CalendarHub, Spongecell, Trumba, and so on. Or have it built into an invitation system such as Evite. But like other new online consumer services, Grouptivity is free and fairly useful, so it's worth trying out if you're struggling with the organizational minutiae of a social gathering.

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April 14, 2006, 10:25 AM PDT
Vista: it ain't pretty
Posted by: Molly Wood

Microsoft has instituted a scary new antipiracy policy on the forthcoming Windows Vista: if you steal it, it won't look pretty. The OS includes a new graphics display engine called Aero, which performs such mission-critical tricks as creating translucent windows, animating flips between open programs, and displaying "live icons" that show a graphical representation of a file.

But if a piracy check shows that you haven't purchased Vista, you won't get the fancy-pants graphics action. Oh, and if you buy the cheapest version of Windows Vista, you won't get Aero either. Oh, and if you don't have a fast enough PC or one of the, like, nine graphics cards that meet the Vista requirements, or you don't have enough memory bandwidth (what, now?), you won't get Aero, either. And hopefully, assuming you buy the OS legally and have the properly mystical configuration of technology to run it, there'll be a button that lets you turn off all that Aero junk, so you don't have to live with what sounds like a supremely irritating collection of resource-sucking whirligigs.

(Wow. Is it wrong to have this much anger toward an operating system that barely even exists yet?)

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April 14, 2006, 8:56 AM PDT
Chevy Tahoe fleet promotes corn-based fuel
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

Walking to Jacob Javitz Center on Thursday morning for the New York Auto Show, I came across the most Chevy Tahoes I've ever seen in one place, all parked right at the front entrance. All the cars were black, and all had a sign saying livegreen goyellow.com in the back window. (That's www.livegreengoyellow.com, if you want to follow the link.) I surmised that Chevy brought this fleet out to promote its flexible fuel vehicles that can run on E85 fuel, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and offer ride-alongs so that people can feel what it's like to drive in a car running on mostly corn. On the show floor, GM promotes that it has the most flexible fuel vehicles of any automaker. GM is putting a huge effort behind its livegreengoyellow.com campaign, touting that ethanol can be produced from corn grown in the United States, reducing our dependence on oil imports. The E85 fuel mixed from domestically produced corn also causes substantially less pollution. Growing our own fuel and polluting less are all major wins, but it has been pointed out that ethanol doesn't have the same energy capacity as gasoline, and we couldn't grown enough corn for every car to run on E85.

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April 14, 2006, 8:05 AM PDT
Honda retails natural gas Civic
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

At the New York Auto Show, Honda showed off its Civic NGV, which runs on compressed natural gas, gives off almost zero emissions, and can be fueled at home for half the price of gasoline. Honda is just starting to make the Civic NGV available in California and New York, and given its environmental and economical superiority, it should be a success. Based on the Civic LX, the natural gas-powered Civic NGV comes standard with an automatic transmission. The EPA has already rated the NGV as getting the equivalent of 28mpg city/39mpg highway, which is only a little inferior to the standard Civic's 30mpg city/40mpg highway. Because natural gas refueling stations aren't common, Honda also displays Phill, a home natural gas refueling station made by Fuelmaker Corporation. This unit taps into residential natural gas lines and automatically shuts off when it senses a full tank. Currently, natural gas is much less expensive than gasoline, so why doesn't everyone have a natural gas car? Honda has been pioneering alternative fuels, even leasing out its FCX fuel-cell vehicle to private parties. Other carmakers may follow in Honda's steps if it is successful. However, natural gas is cheap only because it's not in high demand. Prices have been known to spike during harsh winters because it's also used for home heating. Although the Natural Gas Supply Association claims North America has more than a 100 years' supply at current rates of consumption, that number would go down drastically if all cars ran on natural gas.

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April 14, 2006, 7:59 AM PDT
Tuner Yaris
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

Among Toyota's Yaris display at the New York Auto Show is a sporty-looking tuned-up version. The Yaris is Toyota's new, inexpensive subcompact, and with only 106 horsepower, it won't be seen on the racetrack. But Toyota Racing Development got a hold of this one and gave it a performance face-lift. This Yaris has Sparco seats, Nitto tires, and Volk wheels. The power train is still the standard 1.5-liter variable valve-timed four-cylinder, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. There is one surprise under the hood: a nitrous injection system.

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April 14, 2006, 7:57 AM PDT
Off-roading in Manhattan
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

At the New York Auto Show, Jeep demonstrated its vehicles' off-road credibility with a hazard course. I went on a ride-along in a Jeep Liberty, which isn't Jeep's most serious off-roader, yet it handled the course well. One of the first hazards was a 30-degree sideways slope, which shows how far Jeeps can tip without rolling over. The ground looked very close from the passenger seat. A big hill on the course had a 35-degree ascent and descent, even steeper than the hills I'm used to in San Francisco, yet the Jeep handled it easily. The course even included a 20-inch-deep water hazard, which all the vehicles drive right through. The Jeep driver for my ride-along told me she preferred the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon for the course because it practically drives itself over everything.

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