Well all you Skype users out there, now you are the new target for the hackers.

Why is it that everything Microsoft lay their hands on becomes a security nightmare in no time at all. Seems that Skype has become very leaky these days. It's a good job they don't make buckets or wellington boots.

More about this, and other Skype fiascos can be read on the Infoworld website here.

Did you know Skype is one of the most blacklisted apps on the market. What does this mean? It's so bad that many school kid hackers can manipulate it to reveal just about anything about you.

It could be argued that Skype has had security issues for years, maybe so but that isn't a good enough reason to accept such sloppiness from a company like Microsoft who are FORCING you to use it in preference of Messenger to the extent of withdrawing Messenger altogether.

Messenger was bad but Skype is a lot worse which begs the question. Whose side are Microsoft on; yours or the hackers?

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You've just bought a wonderful brand new computer with the latest offering from Mr Bill Gates' company - Windows 8 - and found that you now wish you'd never seen it. You're not on your own so don't think it's just you. Many tech guys hate it just as much because it is so unproductive in a business environment (see previous Windows 8 entry).

How can you get rid of that awful Operating System the guy in the shop said was so wonderful (did you know he gets paid to tell you that). Well, it is possible but such a great pain in the proverbial so we're not going to bother in this article, maybe later. Apart from being a big pain, removing that awful mishmash of an OS will also invalidate your warranty, so what we're going to do is make this awful system a bit more manageable. It will still be Windows 8 with all the 'wonderful' gadgets it has but you will be able to actually use it on your Laptop and Desktop machine without all the cursing and swearing. That's nice then.

OK, how do we go about it then? Well, when we start our computer, or should that be wake it up (Windows 8 doesn't actually turn off the computer - that's why it starts so fast) the Modern UI (or Metro as it was) is wonderful for touch screen devices but useless if you're using a mouse and keyboard so we need to bypass that and go straight to the desktop that we're all familiar with. To do this, you can download a little free utility called WinAero that will do just that. There are probably other downloads that will do the same thing but this is the one that I used and so far, no complaints.

WinAero will take you straight to the classic desktop, bypassing the Modern UI allowing us to get on with being productive in a way that works - almost. There is something very important missing from the desktop - access to your program list - the Start button! With WinAero, you can disable the hotspot corners rather than just hiding them, including that silly little start screen.

But if I don't have a start button or start screen, how do I access my programs. Have you tried accessing you programs from the desktop in Windows 8 - you can't - so this needs a little fix as well.

To resolve the problem of accessing programs, I used a little utility called Classic Shell. Classic Shell gives us the the 'missing' start button back with a few general improvements into the bargain. It even allows us to choose what style of start menu to have from the classic style of Win98/2000/ME or WinXP or Win7 - witwoo.

There we have it. A way to 'tame' that Windows 8 machine of yours without breaking the bank, without losing your warranty and without losing your sanity. I would rate this task somewhere between easy and moderate. I know some people who will faint at the prospect of doing something for themselves and class this as hard but it isn't if you can follow instructions.

Both of these handy utilities are free at the time of writing and instructions on how to instal them is available on the respective owners/websites and elsewhere on the internet. I have no connection whatsoever with any of the programs mentioned in this article and can accept no responsibility if anything goes wrong if you try this yourself. I am simply providing a solution to a problem that was brought to me by one of my clients. You can try this yourself or call me and I'll do it for you at my normal rates.

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Well, it's started happening. The big Sky switch over is turning people off just as I predicted it would.

How many of you were tempted to having the 1 metre dish installed because you were told that's all you needed to receive Sky. How many of you were actually told that this was purely a short term thing whilst Sky set up a new satellite so they could narrow the beam onto the UK so much tighter that the overspill we were getting here in Spain would be greatly diminished. Not many, I bet.

I have customers who are now reporting to me that they have no TV to watch apart from the local Spanish channels. Well, that's not exactly true. You see, on the links page on my website, there have been links to watch TV for free for nearly two years.

We have never had a TV system in Spain, we've always watched UK TV through the internet, originally using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which also allowed us to watch the catchup services of BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & 5. Nowadays, the only need for the VPN is for the catchup service because the two websites you can just go to and watch TV are geared up so you don't need them. Best of all, it's FREE! What could be better than that?

OK, where do we find them? The first, and easiest, is www.filmon.com; you can watch loads of programs on there including 5 star, 5 USA, Dave apart from the 'normal' BBC & ITV and many more. If you did want to subscribe, then you can watch in HD AND record a program while you watch another.

As well as filmon, there is www.myiplayer.com. This website has programming from UK, USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and more. Not only that, you can even watch a plethora of sports channels including Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 & 4 without it costing you a penny. There is a slight downside to this website; it's advert driven and you get a load of adverts blocking the viewing area for up to one minute before you can view it but that's a small price to pay. Additionally, not all streams are available all day but many channels have multiple streams so if one isn't working, just try one of the others. One word of warning about the adverts is, the close buttons are not in the obvious places - you need to look at them carefully or you'll end up with page after page of adverts on screen.

Myiplayer also has details of free VPNs that allow you to watch the catchup services along with details of how to set them up.

.One thing to remember if you wish to consider streaming live TV, I recommend you have at least 6M reliable internet. That lets out the dodgy wi-fi purveyors (you know who I mean) It can work on lower bandwidth but at busy times, you will get buffering where the program stops because your internet cannot bring the signal in quick enough.

That's OK, I hear you say, but I don't want to sit in front of the computer to watch TV. Guess what, you already are. What do you think that big flat screen jobbie is that you watch now. There are ways to connect your computer to your flat screen TV so you don't have to sit in the spare room in front of your laptop or whatever pc you have there.

Bottom line is, why pay a fortune for something you are guaranteed to lose because it's illegal. Get it for free while you can.