Happy New Year….I hope you guys brought in 2010 with a bang!!! What is in your plan for 2010?

This is a nice download to try out. They just added multi-touch to the software, but I’ve been using the mouse version for awhile and it’s awesome. If you have a tablet PC running Windows 7, then this is a download you want to get. Check out the video.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and be safe. My family and I are cooking at home and then we will house hop for more thanksgiving goodness. See ya Monday…

“If you continue to do what’s right, what’s wrong and who’s wrong will eventually leave your life.” (David Blunt) A businessman had personalized letterhead that read: “Right is right even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.” James 1:12 (LB) says, “Happy is the man who doesn’t give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterward he will get as his reward the crown of life that God has promised those who love Him.”

Spend less time worrying about who’s right and take charge of deciding what’s right in your life. Don’t let someone else choose it for you. “And remember when someone wants to do wrong it is never God who is tempting him, for God never wants to do wrong and never tempts anyone else to do it” (James 1:13, LB).

You cannot do the right thing too soon, for you never know when it will be too late. You can always find the time to do what you really want to do.

Successful people understand that no one makes it to the top in a single bound. What sets them apart is their willingness to keep putting one right step in front of the other, no matter how rough the terrain. We are what we repeatedly do.

Consider the words of John Wesley:
Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

You draw nothing out of the bank of life except what you deposit in it. The height of a man’s potential is in proportion to his surrender to what is right. People who live right never get left. Any act of disobedience lengthens the distance between you and your dream. Likewise, the realization of your dreams is accomplished by sustained prayer and right action.

Do what’s right, then do what’s right, then do what’s right…

-John Mason

Get aggressive and go after opportunities. They may not find you. The reason some people don’t go very far in life is because they sidestep opportunity and shake hands with procrastination. Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried. Don’t be caught out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers when opportunity knocks at your front door. For the tenacious there is always time and opportunity.

Watch for big problems; they disguise big opportunities. Opposition, distraction, and challenges always surround the birth of a dream. Make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes. Adversity is fertile soil for creativity.

To the alert Christian, interruptions are only divinely inserted opportunities. If you’re looking for a big opportunity, look for a big problem. Turn the tables on adversity. Adversity has advantages. When God is going to do something wonderful He begins with a difficulty; if He is going to do something very wonderful, he begins with an impossibility!

Start with what you can do; don’t stop because of what you can’t do. In the parable of the talents the master told the servant who used what he had, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” (Matt. 25:23).

Many people seem to think that opportunity means a chance to get money without earning it. God’s best gifts to us are not things, but opportunities. And those doors of opportunity are marked “push.”

-John Mason

Well…I managed to get my word press blog update with out any problems. Start looking for new content soon, I will start show casing some of my design/graphic work, along with some videos.

Well, I have decided to change my focus in IT back to web design/development and graphic design. Believe it or not I used to do this back in the days before HTML 4 and CSS. I already have a hosting company but I redirected my focus from design aspects of it and had started focusing on hardware (servers, desktop, and support). Now, I can start phase three of my game plan and buy my own servers, manage and host them myself and be a true hosting company. I’m actually working on a website now for a non-profit basketball league. I’ll post a link when I’m finished. My realtor business (Plattinum Properties) has had a door opened, not only does it manage my rentals; but has also started doing HUD contracts, the true blessings in that is being able to be a blessing to people who don’t currently have jobs. Anyway, enough of that…..I think I will start putting video tutorials of different tech things on here, still debating. I do know one thing though, I will currently upgrading word press to the newest version. So stay tuned

photo provided by Andrew Kung Photography

I know I’m late with this; but better late than never. XP released their final ever sp3 last week. I know some of the masses have questions about this service pack in which most I received by email.

Q: What is Service Pack 3?

A: Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is the final Windows XP service pack, a collection of previously-released fixes and product enhancements, as well as a few new features that are unique to this release.

Q: Does SP3 include everything from SP1 and SP2 or do I need to install those first?

A: Though XP SP3 aggregates all of the previously-released XP fixes, Microsoft now says that you will need to install at least SP1 on XP before installing SP3. The company recommends installing SP2 first as well, though that is not required.

Q: What versions of Windows XP will work with SP3?

A: You can apply Service Pack 3 to Windows XP Home Edition, Professional Edition, Tablet PC Edition (any version), or Media Center Edition (any version).

Q: What about Windows XP Professional x64 Edition?

A: SP3 does not apply to the x64 version of Windows XP. Instead, that operating system is updated via service packs aimed at Windows Server 2003. The latest Windows 2003 service pack is SP2.

Q: Windows XP SP2 was released over three years ago. Why the delay on SP3?

A: While Microsoft is an enormous company with over 77,000 employees worldwide and over $50 billion in annual revenues, its organizational structure actually constrains which products are actively developed in some cases. For example, while a large team of developers, product managers, and program managers are involved during the ramp-up to any major OS release, Microsoft then pushes the product into its support organization for follow-up development in the form of hot-fixes, service packs, and so on. Other teams work on out-of-band updates that are typically shipped via the Web and, eventually, a new or existing team is constituted to work on the next major release and the entire process begins anew.

With Windows XP, however, Microsoft was forced to temporarily halt development on XP’s successor, Windows Vista, in order to complete XP SP2. That’s because this release, though provided to customers for free as a typical service pack, was in fact a major OS upgrade and was developed outside of the company’s support structure, a first for any service pack release. After XP SP2 was completed, the people involved with that project moved onto other things, typically Vista or Windows Server 2008.

In the case of Windows XP SP3, Microsoft simply dedicated every available employee it could to completing Windows Vista, which by that time was years behind schedule. So it’s only been since the beginning of this year that anyone turned their attention back to XP’s next and neglected service pack.

Q: What are these new features I keep hearing about?

A: Windows XP Service Pack 3 will not include any major new features, but it will include four minor new features that improve the system’s reliability and security. Contrary to reports, Microsoft has been very up-front about these functional additions for quite some time now.

These new features include:

Network Access Protection compatibility. Announced years ago, this feature allows Windows XP machines to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This functionality is built into the RTM version of Windows Vista as well.

Product Key-less install option. As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup.

Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module. A new kernel module that “encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms,” according to Microsoft.

“Black hole” router detection algorithm. XP gains the ability to ignore network routers that incorrectly drop certain kinds of network packets. This, too, is a feature of Windows Vista.

And that’s about it. Nothing dramatic, as promised.

Q: That’s it? Is there anything else?

Nothing major. Some features have actually been removed, like the taskbar-based Address Bar option.

Q: Why is Microsoft even bothering to release this update? Isn’t everyone moving to Windows Vista?

A: Given the relative security, stability, and reliability of XP with SP2, and the subsequent release of Vista, XP SP3 may seem like a pointless update, but nothing could be further from the truth. Many businesses will roll out new XP-based PCs in the coming years, and as anyone who’s had to update an XP SP2 system can tell you, the 100+ updates that Microsoft has shipped since SP2 can be a nightmare to deploy. If you’re already running XP and have been regularly updating your systems all along, the release of XP SP3 will be a minor event. But if you have planned XP deployments in the future, look very carefully at this release and consider it the baseline for your next generation of PCs. Or, you could always consider Vista, which will of course be updated with genuine new features far longer than will XP.

photo provided by rainpl

Vista released the service pack yesterday available either by windows automatic update or download center, but what kinda tech would I be if I didn’t provide a direct download link……..

Vista SP 1 x86

This is a 435mb download so…you folks who are unfortunately on dial-up, this is going to take you awhile. Microsoft is promising that this service pack will fix a lot of issue currently with Vista. Let me know how it goes.

photo provided by the_defiance

How many of you right now can get onto someone else’s wireless network? My neighborhood is filled with wireless networks. With the addition of wireless to a home makes it possible to connect laptops to the internet from anywhere within a certain radius, the questions is how many are open? Some people don’t care about their network being open, which is cool, but what happens if someone hops on and starts downloading child porn? or if setup incorrectly could be used to access your network and pull personal information (i.e. social, contacts). I knew a person that went to jail because he sat outside of his previous employers house, hop onto his wireless network and pulled all the contacts, used the information to send derogatory emails and information to them. To secure your network only requires a few simple steps during setup to make your life less miserable.

1. Edit system passwords

Essential that you change the default password as soon as you get it installed

2. Change your SSID

Change the SSID which is the wireless network name, change to something that doesn’t tip anyone to your name or location.

3. Disable the SSID broadcast, By default the Wi-fi network will broadcast it’s name to all wireless users within range. With it disabled it becomes invisible to your neighbors.

4. Activate encryption

5. Use Mac address filtering to create a list of devices that can access your network.

These steps are fundamental to locking a wireless router down and should be used to protect yourself and your network.