Brian Gongol
The WHO Radio Wise Guys airs on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa on 1040 AM or streaming online at WHORadio.com. The show airs from 1 to 2 pm Central Time on Saturday afternoons. A podcast of show highlights is also available. Leave comments and questions on the Wise Guys Facebook page or e-mail them to wiseguys@whoradio.com.
Microsoft has stopped shipping new copies of Windows XP to most computer makers and retailers. Microsoft appears to be trying to make room for its next operating system -- namely, Windows 7 -- which they're scheduling for a January 2010 release. But it's hard to believe that they'll keep to that schedule and still manage to have a better program to offer. Besides, Microsoft has supposedly committed to supporting XP through April 2014. They've had to make that promise because so many people and organizations have been so underwhelmed by Windows Vista.
Microsoft hasn't given up on trying to buy Yahoo. Now, instead of a direct buyout, there's talk of three-way transactions and fights over who stays on Yahoo's board of directors. Microsoft still needs to find another line of business and stop making things so complicated. The Internet is no longer the wild west it once was.
If you've ever noticed that online discussions often deteriorate into idiotic name-calling flame wars, then you ought to be familiar with Godwin's Law.
The Internet is scheduled to run out of IP addresses by 2011. While that sounds spooky, there's a solution at hand which involves a lot of back-end work that most users will never notice. But getting the right people to implement it is going to be a lot like the Y2K situation: A whole bunch of behind-the-scenes action, right up until the last second, which almost nobody will notice.
If you're hoping to save some old vinyl records by putting them onto CD, you might look at getting a USB-enabled turntable. It looks like you can find a bunch of them on Amazon.com.
Viacom -- owners of Comedy Central, MTV, and other networks -- has won a dispute with YouTube. The judgement entitles Viacom to a list of every video viewed on YouTube ever. It's a reckless invasion of YouTube users' privacy.
Dan is delighted to share the news that an estimated 8% of computer users are now using Macs.
We've been asked about Linux, the open-source operating system (or, rather, family of systems), and which version is best for the average user. While we have no direct experience with any of the specific distributions of Linux, we've heard a lot of good things about three of them: Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Debian. Both Dan and Brian have intended to play with versions of these operating systems at different times, but there are only so many hours in the day.