Author Archives: Steven

Rewards for grumbling Xbox users

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Microsoft has apologised for the glitches that hit its Xbox Live online game system during the Christmas break.

The software firm said it was "disappointed" with its performance and promised a free downloadable game to all users as recompense.

It said the problems had been caused by a surge of people signing up and using the gaming service.

Microsoft said the growth in new users had been driven by sales of top titles such as Mass Effect and Halo 3.

Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7171355.stm

Note: This appears to be what was causing me heartache in getting my brothers Xbox 360 to work behind my ISA 2006 Server as it’s working now.

Windows Server 2008 is in Escrow! RTM build planned January 16th

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Windows Server 2008 has gone into the final test stages: Escrow. If all goes well it is expected the RTM build bits to be delivered on January 16th. After that all the teams working on Windows have to "sign off" the build (till Jan 23rd)

The week after that there will be "media verification" whatever that may be and then the Release To Manufacturing on February 6th.

We already know Windows Server 2008 build is in sync with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, so do the math.

February 27th is the worldwide launch of Windows Server 2008 together with Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in Los Angeles. There will be launch events around that day all over the world.

SQL Server 2008 has not yet RTMed yet on its launch day!

WSUS 3.0 sp1 can be expected in this time frame too.

News source: Bink.nu

Note: The bit I’m interested in I have marked in bold, so could we see Vista SP1 out sometime this month?

Web icon set to be discontinued

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The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.

In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer," said Tom Drapeau on the company’s blog.

Full story on the BBC Technology News site

Virgin users hit by online outage

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Thousands of Virgin Media customers have had their broadband disconnected following problems with a routine maintenance procedure.

The problem hit customers nationwide on Monday night, with some customers re-connected within 10 minutes, while others had to wait several hours.

Virgin Media has said it is does not know how many of its 3.6 million broadband customers were hit overall.

A spokesman said Virgin was working to reconnect the remaining “few thousand”.

The problem was caused when the routine maintenance caused Virgin’s set-top boxes and modems to lose their “leased” IP address, the unique number that identifies them on the internet.

The set-top boxes and modems automatically attempted to “renew” the lease, but demand for potentially hundreds of thousands of new IP addresses hit Virgin’s own routers which handle the requests.

The problem hit not just broadband connections, but also the firm’s on demand and interactive services, which are delivered over the net.

A spokesman for Virgin Media advised customers to re-start their modems and set-top boxes.

He added: “Most of the problems occurred in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands and the majority of affected customers regained their service shortly after midnight.

“Our engineers are currently working to restore the few remaining connections as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Virgin said it had not yet identified the problem during the maintenance which had caused the issue.

News source: BBC News

Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

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One of the most important changes of the last 30 years is that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker.

In almost every job now, people use software and work with information to enable their organisation to operate more effectively.

That’s true for everyone from the retail store worker who uses a handheld scanner to track inventory to the chief executive who uses business intelligence software to analyse critical market trends.

So if you look at how progress is made and where competitive advantage is created, there’s no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today’s global knowledge economy.

A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career.

Beyond that, however, I don’t think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in maths and science.

If you look at the most interesting things that have emerged in the last decade – whether it is cool things like portable music devices and video games or more practical things like smart phones and medical technology – they all come from the realm of science and engineering.

Full story at source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7142073.stm

Office 2008 Hits RTM

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Here’s the latest official word – Office 2008 for Mac has Released to Manufacturing (RTM)!

We’re very pleased to announce that the product team has signed off, and our final build has left the building and is en route to manufacturing sites abroad. Needless to say there’s some joy in MacBUville, with festivities as I post. While we love building Mac software, actually getting that software into the hands of the people we’ve been building it for is something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. For my teams, the RTM milestone is the last step in the process.

It’s quite a thing to think back on everything that has gone into arranging the bits on this one polycarbonate disc. One way to think about the approximate total man hours is that if a single multi-talented person had done all this work they might have started around the time that King John signed the Magna Carta.

I know it’s been said before, but I’d like to extend my thanks to the team. Office 2008 is MacBU’s most significant release to date. I’m excited about both the new user experience and capabilities we’re delivering now, as well as the work we’ve done at all levels to make this release a great foundation for future releases to come.

Though our work is finished, our operations, localization and marketing teams remain busy getting Office 2008 on shelves for our product launch on January 15th at Macworld 2008. A large portion of the MacBU team will be on hand at Macworld, and I know people are excited to show their work and talk to real users about the release. We hope to see you there on the show floor, in presentations, and at various events around town – watch Mac Mojo for more details about what we’ll be up to at Macworld!

I’m hearing the ship siren getting cranked again – off to check on the latest margarita batch.

News source: blogs.msdn.com

Announcing Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC)

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Today we’re making available the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 via Microsoft Connect, and tomorrow subscribers to TechNet and MDSN will have access to those RC bits too.  In addition, the RC will be available to the public next week via Microsoft’s Download Center. The release candidate phase of beta software is typically the final phase before the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) of a product and indicates that the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability.

Let me call out several changes made since the Beta release of Service Pack 1 — many of which came about as a result of direct feedback from our Beta-testing community (thank you!):

  • The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
  • The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
  • Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn’t needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
  • Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
  • We’ve improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

More on this blog post including IT Administrator information on the Windows Vista blog

Microsoft wireless keyboard hacked from 50 metres

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Swiss researchers say they can log keystrokes from Microsoft’s wireless keyboards from up to 50 metres away using special radio equipment, and are close to being able to control affected computers remotely.

The protocol for securing some of Microsoft’s wireless keyboards has been cracked, opening up the possibility of keystroke logging, according to Swiss security company Dreamlab Technologies.

Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000 keyboards communicate by transmitting radio signals to the sound card in a user’s computer. The data stream is encrypted using an exclusion-or (XOR) cipher, which is not strong enough to secure the communication, according to Dreamlab’s senior security specialist, Max Moser.

"This is nothing like a crypto-algorithm," Moser told ZDNet Australia sister site ZDNet.co.uk. "An exclusion-or binary is really a simple mathematical idea. You can crack the cipher by hand. You take two values, write both lines and look at the different digits. When either the top or the lower line is 1, you write 1. If both are 0, you write 0. For me, this is just obfuscation [rather than encryption]."

Article continues on ZDNet Australia

Vista SP1 Release Candidate expected next week

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Microsoft is looking to release the Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 to selected testers the week of December 1, according to sources close to the company.

Microsoft’s plan is to expand the SP1 RC test to the general public by making the build available to any interested parties in the second week of December, sources said.

Microsoft is currently testing the escrow of the SP1 RC build internally. The build being tested internally is build number 17051, sources said.

Microsoft has said it is planning to deliver the final SP1 code in the first quarter of 2008.

Microsoft made a preview build of the Vista SP1 RC available to 15,000 pre-selected testers on November 14.

It’s not clear if Microsoft is planning to make next week’s RC of Vista SP1 available to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) testers. Microsoft posted to the MSDN site on November 2 a note saying the company had made available for download a preview of the Vista SP1 code. But the note was posted in error.

I’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation on the latest SP1 RC schedule details. No word back yet.

News source: ZDNet Blogs

Minister pushes broadband agenda

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The government is to draw up a battle plan on the best way to roll out next-generation broadband networks.

It will share best practice from high-speed pilots around the UK as well as lay out the business case for future investment in high-speed networks.

The agreement came out of a broadband summit chaired by Competitiveness Minister Stephen Timms.

Mr Timms said ultra-fast broadband would be a key technology for Britain.

He welcomed Virgin Media’s announcement that it will be launching a 50Mbps (megabits per second) broadband service in the UK in 2008.

“This is an important stride towards full next-generation access in the UK which I’m sure others will want to match,” he said.

Full article on BBC Technology News