Byte of the Week

Yesterday I got a letter from the Minnesota District Court of Claims Administration telling me how to file a claim against Microsoft as part of the big class action suit. I thought I might save you some reading or answer some questions by pulling out what I thought were the more important pieces below. (I apologize to the non-Minnesota subscribers. Next week I’ll have something for everyone.)

Who is entitled to settlement benefits?
Anyone who legally purchased “Microsoft Windows operating system software or MS-DOS operating system software” from May 18, 1994 to March 17, 2003 in Minnesota for use in Minnesota.

What can you get?
Depending on the purchases you made, you will get a voucher to buy various computer products or software. Here is an itemized list of benefit amounts:

• $15 each for Microsoft Windows or MS_DOS operating system software
  
• $23 each for Microsoft Office
  
• $9 each for Microsoft Word
  
• $23 each for Microsoft Excel
  

There is a way that you can redeem vouchers for cash – but that requires proof of purchase, which means product ID numbers and/or documentation of purchases.

How do you file a claim?
You can file online or download the necessary forms online.
The form must be postmarked or sent online before February 20, 2005. Most folks will use the standard form. If you purchased through a volume license, you will want the volume license claim form.

If you have fewer than 5 items to claim and will redeem less than $100 then you only need to know the name of the product you purchased, year of purchase, and seller of purchase. If you have more items or plan to redeem more than $100, you will also need to have the product ID number or documentation of purchase.

What if I don’t file a claim?
If you don’t file a claim you will get nothing. Also, your lack of action will indicate that you are OK with the settlement – so you will not be able to sue Microsoft again. To be able to take part in a different suit against Microsoft you must request to be excluded from the settlement. You can exclude yourself by sending a letter of exclusion to:
Settlement Claims Administrator
Microsoft – Minnesota Settlement
PO Box 202
Minneapolis MN 55440-0202
Letter must be sent by October 4, 20044

For more information on filing a claim, visit the claim site. For information on the settlement, check out this PC World article.

I read an interesting article yesterday about the IRS and computer security concerns. Apparently the IRS hired contractors to upgrade their computer systems. The contractors were allegedly not as careful with security as they should have been. And while the IRS acknowledges that security was a problem, they claim it was not a big risk. Here is the full article.

As I said, the article is interesting but what I thought was really interesting was the list of security concerns. I thought it might be a good idea to share that list to remind us all to be aware of security breaches in our own systems. Here were the concerns:

The IRS granted the contractor “root” access to the computer system. (Root access gives a user permission to make unlimited and unrestricted changes to any part of the computer system.)

Unauthorized chat and instant-messaging activity left the IRS vulnerable to hackers

Contractors’ computers were vulnerable to hackers and viruses because they did not have security patches for known vulnerabilities in operating software.

Some computers used by contractors were too old to support a secure operating system, and the IRS did not have enough money to replace them.

Security concerns have promoted many users to stop using Internet Explorer. I won’t go into the problems (to learn more you can visit the following news story). I thought I’d introduce a few other browsers instead:

Netscape: I used to love Netscape! I still remember the sad day I gave it up – but it’s still out there!

Safari: I’m not a Mac user, but I’ve heard very good things from Mac users about Safari.

Mozilla: This is like the grandkid of the original browser. Mozilla celebrates open source technology – inviting developers to build upon their existing products.

The advantages of the above are: they’re free; they’re not Microsoft so hacking aren’t spending as much time targeting them

The disadvantage is that they’re not Microsoft so for many of us they will be different from what we are used to using. Also because 9 out of 10 users choose Explorer over other browsers most web developers program with Explorer in mind – so sometimes the formatting or functionality is less than perfect with other browsers.

If you are interested in a more complete list of browsers you can check out the list from DMOZ.

Folks – sorry for the late Byte this week. I’ve been waiting on some breaking news and it finally happened. It’s not tech-related, but it’s excited to us.

On Monday I had a baby girl – Aine Therese O’Donnell was born at 3:08 in the afternoon. Aine is an Irish name (pronounced like Onya). She was 8 lbs and 13 oz – much bigger than either of her sisters was at birth.