The University of Berkeley recently chose between the two giants in the cloud office space – Google and Microsoft. Nerds On Site offers both Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 (resold from AppRiver) and thought we’d share some of the University’s work on this comparison. There are two major offerings because one solution doesn’t fit everyone’s needs. The University of Berkeley put together a comparison matrix, and you can view it here: http://technology.berkeley.edu/productivity-suite/google/matrix.html.

Though we covered this in a blog post in May in much more detail, after seeing another report on TV of people falling victim, or very close to being one, of a telephone scam making the rounds, supposedly from Microsoft, it's time to revisit this issue.

It deserves to be reiterated that NO legitimate or reputable company will ever call you out of the blue saying they want to remotely check your computer for problems. The problem is, people trust big brands like Microsoft, and the scammers rely on this fact, and sound very convincing, so when they say they're calling from a company like Microsoft, less people question it.

"The scam works by criminals posing as computer security engineers and calling people at home to tell them they are at risk of a computer security threat," Microsoft said Thursday. "The scammers tell their victims they are providing free security checks and add authenticity by claiming to represent legitimate companies and using telephone directories to refer to their victims by name."

Their goal, in fact, is NOT to fix your computer, but to steal information from your computer and make a mess of your system.

According to Microsoft themselves:

"We do not send unsolicited email messages or make unsolicited phone calls to request personal or financial information or fix your computer," Microsoft says on its website. "If you receive an unsolicited email message or phone call that purports to be from Microsoft and requests that you send personal information or click links, delete the message or hang up the phone."

A good rule of thumb is to never accept tech support help you did not intentionally seek out. If you didn't call them to arrange any appointment, there's something fishy going on, and it's best just to hang up.

Please share this article. Let's get the word out about this, so more people don't become victims of these phone scams.

Here are a few other articles covering these phone scams:

Microsoft Warns of Internet Phone Scam (pcworld.com)

'Microsoft support centre' scam continues, and takes turn for worse (the guardian.co.uk)

Microsoft Warns of Internet Phone Scam (tomshardware.com)

With the recent launch of the Windows Phone 7, I think the major thing they did to set themselves aside from others is the “Live Tiles” function which basically makes everything accessible from one screen.

For Gamers, one aspect they are taking advantage of is the X-box live feature where you can play games through your account via the phone and your X-box live account.

Another potentially beneficial aspect is for those using Microsoft Office, the “Office Hub” Let’s you sync directly with so you can have all your important data with you on the go if needed.

Carriers:

• AT&T
• T-Mobile

Devices:

• Samsung Focus
• LG Quantum
• HTC Surround
• HTD HD7
• Dell Venue Pro

As much as I would like to try this out, it is a Windows Phone with all it’s functions. I have a PC already, therefore I think I will stick with my iPhone and Skype for now, or until my needs change.

Did you know that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser market share has sunk to its all-time-low in April, at under 60 percent, as reported by NetApplications statistics?

NetApplications browser market share statistics for April 2010.

Fun Fact #1: Who remembers Netscape? Yes, way back when dial-up was all the rave. Anyways it has been over 10 years since IE won over them.

Fun fact #2: IE has just released Internet Explorer 9 Beta

As briefly described in the last post, Microsoft released a record number of patches and updates for Windows yesterday on it’s monthly Patch Tuesday release cycle. In total, 14 patches addressing 34 vulnerabilities, only a few of which are critical, but all should be downloaded and installed via Windows Update. Waiting to update could potentially mean leaving Windows at risk to be infected by viruses specifically designed to take advantage of the flaws in Windows at some point.

More information on this month’s Patch Tuesday can be found on this CNET article.

The recent zero day security hole in Internet Explorer is a serious concern as it can allow a malicious website to get access to your computer.

Microsoft is currently working on a patch but until this is released they recommend several workarounds, I have pasted from their security advisory at the bottom, however these workarounds are not easy for a novice user, particularly because to choose one of them requires that you be able to evaluate which is the best for your own environment.

An easier option would be to install an alternative web browser, here at Nerds On Site we prefer Firefox which is recommended by such security researchers as Steve Gibson of Security Now podcast.

Here is the excerpt from Microsofts security advisory showing the available workarounds:

Based on our investigation, setting the Internet zone security setting to High will protect users from known attacks. However, for the most effective protection, customers should evaluate a combination of using the High security setting in conjunction with one of the following workarounds.

•	Disable XML Island functionality
•	Restrict Internet Explorer from using OLEDB32.dll with an Integrity Level ACL
•	Disable Row Position functionality of OLEDB32.dll
•	Unregister OLEDB32.dll
•	Use ACL to disable OLEDB32.dll

For additional workaround details, please see the following post: http://blogs.technet.com/swi/archive/2008/12/12/Clarification-on-the-various-workarounds-from-the-recent-IE-advisory.aspx#workarounds.

Each of these workarounds is equally effective in protecting customers; however, each workaround has different impacts based on the environment in which they are applied. We encourage customers to evaluate which of the workarounds would be least impactful to their environment, based on the impact statements included with each workaround.