Q;t=B dodogg MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR
SHAME ON THE DOG
Set your phasers on Safe, laddies. The Dog incor-
rectly quoted the great Montgomery Scott in his
April column. What Scotty actually said in episode
32 was “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me
twice, shame on me.” And shame on the editors
who missed that mistake.HOW DO YOU DEFINE 1GB?
The Dog didn’t think suing hard drive makers
over the definition of 1GB was really kosher, but
Western Digital has agreed to settle a class-action
lawsuit claiming that consumers got shafted
on capacity. The problem? While operating sys-
tems represent 1GB using a binary definition of
1,073,741,824 bytes, hard drive makers—including
Western Digital—use the decimal definition of
1,000,000,000.
Anyone who purchased an aftermarket WD
drive between March 22, 2001 and February 15,
2006 are members of the class, and are entitled to
download a copy of EMC Dantz Retrospect Express
version 7.0 backup software. Attorneys in the case,
however, are the real winners, netting $485,
plus $15,000 in expenses. More information is
available at http://www.wdc.com/settlement.INVISIBLE VENDOR
I’ve read almost every edition of your magazine and pride
myself on having never been duped. That all changed
recently when I visited a site called InvisibleIP.com. The
entire website is devoted to a tool for anonymous web
surfing. What I ended up purchasing for $19.95, however,
was a spyware scanner called ETD Security Scanner.
It tells me I have all types of spyware on my computer,
which none of the top-five spyware scanners, including
the Panda free scanner, could find. I have since unin-
stalled the program and requested a refund, which I real-
ly don’t expect to receive anytime soon. After purchasing
the product and learning its real name, I was able to
discover information about it at http://www.spywarewarrior.
com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#products.
— Dane ChungIndeed, there’s no other way
to know the true nature of
InvisibleIP.com’s product, with
its claim to “change and hide
your IP address for anony-
mous web surfing!” What else
was Dane to think, given testi-
monials from customers such
as Casey Spencer, who’s quot-
ed as saying: “I never used to
worry about my privacy—that
was before one of my friends
got her identity stolen! Now I
know that I need to be more
careful—thanks for providing
this great software!”
When the Dog tried to
contact InvisibleIP.com for
comment, no one responded.
The website is hosted on
GoDaddy.com but registered
through DomainsByProxy.com.
DomainsByProxy.com
masks who actually registered
the site, so it’s anyone’s guess
who owns it. Interestingly,
DomainsByProxy.com has two
prominent links on its front
page: one for law enforcement
to conduct investigations of
its members, and the other
for serving civil subpoenas, so you gotta wonder
what’s going on.
Because InvisibileIP.com never responded, the
Dog is putting the site into the Dog House, with
much pleasure. If you’re looking for a legitimate
surfing tool that provides anonymity, there’s still
Anonymizer (www.anonymizer.com). You can try
Anonymizer for free by entering URLs you want to
surf anonymously into the Anonymizer home page.TOTALLY OUT OF BUSINESS
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Totally Awesome
Computers shut down
eight stores in Utah this
week. I know this might not
seem like a big deal, but its
website is still running, and
anyone buying a computerfrom Totally Awesome will be getting a totally awe-
some amount of grief with their purchase. I believe
Maximum PC reviewed one of its computers before,
so: Buyer, beware!
— Roger PriceDon’t worry, Roger; Totally Awesome’s website
has since been updated to reflect its defunct
status, there’s no risk of attracting unwitting
new customers. TAC’s existing customers and
70 employees aren’t as lucky.
What did in TAC? It’s not clear, as the
company’s “colorful” owner, Dell Schanze—aka
Super Dell—hasn’t disclosed any details. He did,
however, hold a press conference, during which he
blamed the media.
“It’s too bad that all of the media in Utah are
liars and murderers,” the Deseret News quotedMA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006A reader claims he received adware instead of the stealth-
surfing software he was led to believe he was purchasing.Our consumer advocate investigates...
PWestern Digital PInvisible IP
PTotally Awesome PElectro Source
Ben, Watchdog of the monthGot a bone to pick with a vendor? Been spiked by a fly-
by-night operation? Sic The Dog on them by writing
[email protected]. The Dog promises to answer as
many letters as possible, but only has four paws to work with.