Get by with a little help from your (non-Windows-using) friends

Seems that a lot of digital picture frames are shipping with a Windows virus pre-installed. This is very convenient; it eliminates all of the hassle of connecting to the net and waiting for infection.

Seriously, and as John Gruber pointed out in Daring Fireball, here is one general approach to avoiding Windows viruses (quoted from the article linked above):

Deborah Hale at SANS suggested that PC users find friends with Macintosh or Linux machines and have them check for malware before plugging any device into a PC.

Just you wait, Henry Higgins...

Maybe a little dated, but by this point there's plenty of humorous comments to read. Hilton Locke, who works on Microsoft's tablet PCs, states, "I will say that if you are impressed by the "touch features" in the iPhone, you'll be blown away by what's coming in Windows 7." First of all, I think MS is very smart in going back to serial numbers for their OS releases: they are neutral names and nobody can make a fuss about the year they get released or whether their features or performance match their names. And they don't have to worry about running out of cool cat names.

I'll leave it to the comments on Locke's blog to remark on bragging about how a desktop OS not scheduled to be released for three years will exceed a palmtop UI available right now. Consider instead the following quote from the same blog post:

Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.

I've got an idea on how to do that: have that technology actually drive their sales. There's no substitute for delivering on promises.