Alan Buckingham

I should first clarify that the "clueless" response is not an official Microsoft comment, but comes from one employee who took it upon himself to cause the entire company trouble. We have been hearing a lot of rumors regarding the next Xbox that is expected to be announced at the upcoming E3 gaming conference, which kicks off June 5. Much of what has been floating around the internet surrounds anticipation of the "720" being an "always-connected" device. In other words, customers would not be able to game without an internet connection.

The furor around "always on" is mostly about DRM and the used-game market, but it also means that no game would play if your connection happened to go down. Microsoft has never confirmed this to be the case, though it also has not refuted the possibility.

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Patch Tuesday is almost upon us yet again. As is its custom, Microsoft has released a monthly Advance Security Bulletin to let customers know what to expect next week. There are nine bulletins headed our way on April 9, with two of them being considered critical.

Per standard procedures, Microsoft does not release details of the patches until the updates are actually live. This is done in an effort to prevent the bad guys from knowing the vulnerabilities and attempting to take advantage of them  between now and the update release. There is, however, nothing to protect those users who fail to install Windows updates in a timely fashion.

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I suppose I could be charitable and say Microsoft's heart is in the right place with its latest Windows Phone announcement. The fact is rivals like Amazon and Google needed some good competition from new kid on the mobile block. The Amazon Android App Store offers a paid app for free everyday and Google Play regularly has sales for various causes for celebration that the company cooks up. Microsoft has reason to come up with a bit of competition against those things, and today does just that.

The company announces its new "Red Stripe Deals" site and, no, it has nothing to do with Jamaican beer. The new site is a collection of apps and games that have been discounted for Windows Phone customers. The concept is a great idea and is sure to be a hit for the mobile audience.

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If you listen to security companies then you may come to believe that the Internet is one big dark alley. Of course the industry has a vested interest in having you believe that you are in more or less perpetual danger. Now Dr. Web, the antivirus company, has released its monthly threat report, and the danger is almost as bad as the industry wants you to think.

The most "popular" threat during the month of March was Trojan.hosts programs: "Hosts file containing DNS server IP addresses has been compromised 186,496 times, which constitutes over 10 percent of the detected threat total". The threat is commonly spread through malicious or compromised web sites. In early 2013 the files were being detected at a rate of over 9,500 infections per day.

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Kids. They grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that my Android phone finally became a member of the Instagram generation, only just "slightly" behind all of those iPhones out there. Now the social photo sharing service is celebrating its one year anniversary on the Google-based mobile operating system.

Philip McAllister, of the Instagram Android team, announces that "One year ago today we launched Instagram for Android. In less than a day, over a million people downloaded the app, and now nearly half of all Instagrammers use the Android app to share photos with friends, family and the world".

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When saying I have played Rovio's Amazing Alex game on my Android phone for some time, I don't mean a cheap shot at the app launching today on Windows Phone. To be truthful, it is more a challenge, and one that comes with sincere sympathy, because folks on the Microsoft mobile platform now have the opportunity to be just as baffled as me.

The physics-based puzzle game from the Finnish company debuted for Windows Phone 8. According to Microsoft's Michael Stroh, "The game has more than 100 levels, 35 interactive objects, and four locations to keep things interesting. But one of my favorite features of Amazing Alex is this: the game lets you design and share your own levels -- and download the best fan-created levels engineered by other players".

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Well, perhaps you may have heard something about this project, but it hasn't exactly made mainstream news. However, the Digital Public Library of America is gearing up for its big launch day and the organization has lofty goals. The project has been in the works since 2010, when it was conceived by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

The primary objective is to bring together the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums all in one online location. Several state libraries, including most recently South Carolina, have pledged to add their historical collections to the archive. There has also been a pledge of more than 10,000 digital images from museums.

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Back in March, which was not so long ago, we learned that the Android feature that is all the rage would likely come to Chrome the browser and operating system. François Beaufort uncovered code that seemed to confirm the coming inclusion of Google Now, as Beaufort seems to uncover everything -- to the point where the search ginat recently threw up its proverbial hands in frustration and finally hired the man.

That day has arrived...in a manner of speaking. The latest build of Chrome Canary, the developer channel version of the browser, has hit the streets and version 28 comes with the initial framework for Now integration.

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Late yesterday and throughout this morning I have browsed my RSS feeds and continued to be amazed by the stories I see. This is not new -- I am often amazed by what some sources will run with. However the latest "news" surrounding Windows "Blue", which leaked out last week, has me completely perplexed.

Blue is, of course, very real. I am running it in a virtual machine and Microsoft has even confirmed that this update will be unveiled at the BUILD conference in June. The company has also told us that "Blue" is a code name, meaning it will likely not be the final moniker that the update is released under. All of this we know.

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You probably already know that Microsoft is bringing its BUILD conference to San Francisco this June. It's not cheap, the tickets and airfare could set you back considerably depending on where you are coming from, but it may be worth the expense to make the trip. Microsoft has promised to unveil Windows Blue there -- though you're likely to have seen the early leaked version already.

Today is the time to get your credit card ready because registration goes live at 9 AM PT and while it will not be easy on your wallet, those who register early, as in within the first 500, will get a discounted rate and only have their bank accounts lightened by $1,595. If you do not make that "early bird" special then you can expect to pay $2,095 for the privilege of travelling to the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

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Pandora gets me through my days. As I am in an office of one person I need to create my own entertainment and the music streaming service on my Galaxy Nexus is one of my favorite options. This morning when I awoke and checked my phone I found that the app had just improved for me and every other customer.

Today Pandora rolls out several new updates to upgrade the streaming music service -- providing you are running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, or later. That is the level of the mobile operating system you will need to get the most important of the new features, which is lock screen controls. The control is simple -- just play-pause and skip buttons, along with the artist and song title that show you what is currently playing.

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Back in January I had the opportunity to test out BitTorrent Sync. I did not find the product to be completely ready for prime time, but I also did not find it to be terrible. I couldn't call BitTorrent Sync ready to replace my dearly departed Live Mesh, but I saw some promise, just lacking a bit of polish around the edges.

The company steadily improved the service since those early days and now is ready to roll out a more public version of what is still considered Alpha software.

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Every week Microsoft's Office team does a webinar. That is not news, but this week the company is focusing on Office specifically within Windows 8. While perhaps many of you are not yet using the latest versions of Office and Windows, it is pretty much assured that eventually you will be -- assimilation is inevitable.

With that thought in mind, Microsoft's Doug Thomas announces that "if you are working with Windows 8-or your business will be using Windows 8 soon-check out this week's webinar. We will go over shortcuts and quick navigation for keyboard and mouse, plus answer your questions".

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Last night marked the debut of season three of "Game of Thrones", the wildly popular HBO show based on the books by George R. R. Martin. The show generates major publicity and even bigger Internet piracy to go along with that. Thanks to a large, and Internet-savvy, fan base, the fantasy series is the single-most pirated TV show ever. Game of Thrones had one episode downloaded 4.3 million times.

Director David Petrarca already is on record saying he is not concerned by the piracy. But, now, in what feels almost like an April Fool's joke that came a day early, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo stepped up to say he has no problem with the show's status as the top download. Lombardo told Entertainment Weekly that "The demand is there, and it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network".

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In what will surely be viewed as a controversial, yet likely politically correct decision, today the Google homepage is running with a Doodle portraying deceased labor leader Cesar Chavez, in honor of what would have been his 86th birthday. Chavez passed away back in 1993, but his work and memory have lived on. In 2011, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as the official Cesar Chavez day.

While the Easter holiday is celebrated by Christians around the world, the holiday is just that -- one religion only. On the other hand, I think we can all, no matter what your denomination, relate to an activist farm worker who stood up for the civil rights of humans of all backgrounds.

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