Helen Barrow feared she would lose coursework for her degree

A woman from Greater Manchester has become a victim of an internet scam in which hackers hijack computer files and blackmail owners to get them back.

Criminals encrypt files with complex passwords, leaving a ransom note telling victims not to contact police.

Ms Barrow’s note said that she would have to buy drugs from an online pharmacy to find out the password.

The new phenomenon, known as Ransomware, means victims cannot access any of the files stored in their My Documents folder.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Its not clear yet if this is a mistake or not. The debate rages on over at Engadget.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/

Williams: Do you know the downside of innovation? The rap on it is the minute you buy an iPod, you have to get the newest iPod.

Jobs: You know, you keep on innovating, you keep on making better stuff. And if you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year.

Link: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12974884

This is always a problem for users when they move from one computer to another.

I found some Visual Basic for Applications Code to export the data into a word document.

This is only half a solution, you still have to copy and paste them in on your new machine.

Anyway the Code is

Sub InsertAllAutoText()

Dim Entry As AutoTextEntry

Documents.Add

For Each Entry In NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries

‘ Turn bold formatting on and insert the AutoText name
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Selection.TypeText Text:=Entry.Name

‘ Turn bold formatting off and insert AutoText entry
Selection.Font.Bold = False
Selection.TypeParagraph
Entry.Insert Where:=Selection.Range, RichText:=True
Selection.Range.Select
Selection.TypeParagraph

‘ Insert a blank line between entries
Selection.TypeParagraph
Next

End Sub

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

The agreement between the world’s largest personal computer company and Google, comes after the two firms announced they would install Google’s software package on Dell computers in February.

Back then the two firms were rumoured to be considering installing Google software on up to 100 million new Dell personal computers after the software firm beat rival Microsoft in the deal, and Yahoo pulled out.

The deal could mark a major turning point for Google and mark a serious threat to rival Microsoft.

I speculate this is google’s first salvo in making sure that when Windows Vista ships that a co-branded Dell/Google start page is what the user will see (on new Dell hardware) and not Microsoft’s www.live.com.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5018372.stm