HD Radio Needs Wake-Up Call

Many of these disgruntled correspondents seem to have missed the columns I've written before about Microsoft's security mistakes. Like, say, this one. (It's always amusing to be called a Microsoft shill when I've got that in my clip file.)

But I digress. In yesterday's column, I tried to assess OneCare as if it came from any random company, instead of The Evil Empire -- I mean, the nice, hard-working folks in Redmond, Wash.

Having been disappointed by earlier security suites, I confess that I wanted to like this one. But I found too many things that need work.

So there's still room for somebody to upend the market with a simple, effective security program that (here's a concept) Just Works. If it comes from Microsoft, I'll welcome it as much as if it came from anybody else. This is too big of a problem for any one company to be barred from trying to help.

Annoyed by Adobe Reader

As washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blogger Brian Krebs noted last week, Adobe released its eighth update to Adobe Reader since version 7 shipped in December 2004.

I would be delighted if I didn't see another Reader update ever again. With these patches, Adobe has accomplished the rare feat of making a simple software fix an irritating ritual on two different operating systems.

In Windows, applying an Adobe Reader update involves repeatedly hitting the Enter key, waiting for this lump of code to be installed, and restarting the computer. In Mac OS X there's no reboot, but the updater somehow requires that you type in an administrator password (there's no way that any kind of read-only program like this should ever need that level of access to the system).

If you need to download a fresh copy, Adobe insists on making you first download and run a separate download-manager application -- in both OS X and Windows -- instead of just letting you download Reader itself. Adobe also lards up the Windows download with an irrelevant Yahoo browser toolbar and the "starter edition" of its Photoshop Album picture organizer.

What does Adobe think it's trying to do here -- borrow the worst habits of RealNetworks?

Weekend Wrap

In addition to the OneCare Live review, yesterday's tech coverage included these other articles:

* In Web Watch, Frank Ahrens explores the YouTube-fueled popularity of "a coquettish, dancing, yoga-demonstrating 18-year-old with a lilting Tasmanian accent."

* Daniel Greenberg tries out a $150 "upconverting" DVD player that electronically amplifies the picture quality of a DVD to near-high-definition levels.

* And in Help File, I outline some steps to take if another Internet provider says you've been blacklisted for spamming.