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.

My wife and I received our tax refund sometime ago and we decided that this year we are going to use it on us. We are going to reward ourselves with something that we want, because we work hard every year and we deserve to treat ourselves. I’ve been in the IT industry for a long time now and when you spend the majority of your time looking at a monitor your eye’s will tend to play tricks on you after awhile, not to mention old age plays a part. My primary work station is a Acer laptop (TravelMate 6410) with a 19in wide screen dual setup. Now your thinking 19in wide screen….thats pretty big, whats the problem? Screen real estate is the problem, I’m an Analyst/Consultant/Tech Support/Virtual enthusiast , I tend to have multiple windows open at any given time. I dislike having to close windows to get to where I need to get to. So the other day I bought this sweet SOYO 24″, Yes sir…..24 in wide screen, for $280 retail price of $400. Man, this thing is on it….Bright,Big, and Pretty. I can surf the net, work on a Linux server in a virtual environment, and watch videos all on 1 screen. To think you hear people say “Bigger isn’t necessarily better” I beg to differ…….

Photo provided by feelium81

If you have bought a new computer within the last year it’s pretty much a bet that it came loaded with Vista. I’m not a Vista fan as of yet, due to the fact that there are major problems with the initial release. I’m not big into the Mac screen switching/ eye candy stuff that Vista offers either but to each there own. If your a techie then you know Vista has all kinda performance flaws that really keep it from being a main stream operating system especially for businesses. Some of the home users don’t have a clue about all this either, they just use it and want it to work. Well Microsoft is finally releasing the service pack (SP1) here in a couple of months, available in automatic update around April. Make sure you keep an eye out for this major release. Will it  make your computer faster? Not really… Are there any noticeable changes? Not to the naked eye, but there is a couple of visible like the removal of the search bar. Other than that everything else is under the hood.  Do I need it? Yes…the fact that this is Vista, you want to take every opportunity to make it work better for you no matter if you see a difference or not. Besides you paid for it…..

As if Microsoft wasn’t big enough…they offer 44 billion to purchase yahoo, read here. Yahoo use to be the thing back in the days…. at least for me. I tell you though I don’t think it’ll be enough to take Google down. We’ll have to see

Aight.. Microsoft released a beta version of a remote software call Shared View last year. This week I had the privilege of finally testing this bad boy out on some of my clients/customers. Now this software was developed to replace net meeting which was a video conferencing software available with windows 95 on into XP, that’s when videoconferencing was getting really big. I, myself use other various remotes like RDP, Radmin, Webex, or Yugma, which are cool but you either have to pay for the software, the service or have an available terminal server license. Shared View (beta) is FREE…. At least the beta version, hopefully it will continue on being free after beta. How pimpin’ is that, you consulting businesses, or side businesses out there, you can remote into a home user PC and do tech support without the expense to your pocket. Now as I stated earlier I tested this software for myself. My testing consisted of me (Nashville, TN) customer (Michigan), now after the initial connection, I thought it wasn’t to bad as far as connection speed for that distance, it had lag’ but it wasn’t that bad. If you already have a Windows Live acct you’re good to sign in and start, if not…. sign up for one. I was able to remote in do the tech work needed, explain to the users how and why the problem happened without dropping the connection. Now it’s not as robust as Remote Desktop (RDP) or Radmin, where you can control the mouse at the drop of a dime. If you want to control the mouse the customer has to initiate the connection to you, and then they give you desktop control. What I did was create a live acct for my users to use when I need to control their desktops. Other than that, if you want to sell a software or better yet conference your team members or classmates in on a project you can, send an invite and BAM!! They can view your desktop, or a specific application, your choice. Not bad for a freebie software by Micro$oft…..

Now I know this is probably an unknown topic amongst the black community, hell you probably don’t even know what it means, but…trust me here, if your a small business this can be a godsend. Virtualization will and can save a business money if implemented right with existing technology. There has been some software released in the past few months by Microsoft and other developers that allows you to run resources in a virtual environment.

Virtualization is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing and challenging the way that people compute. Today’s powerful x86 computer hardware was originally designed to run only a single operating system and a single application, but virtualization breaks that bond, making it possible to run multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same computer at the same time, increasing the utilization and flexibility of hardware.

I currently run a Linux distribution called Sabayon Linux . I will expound more on the Linux distribution later but, within this I’m running a virtual software called virtualbox. This allows me to run Windows XP and Vista on my linux machine. Virtualbox is one of many virtual software (i.e. vmware, virtualpc) out there so do some research to find out which you would prefer. As a business owner this can save you tons of money in hardware expenses, I implemented this at work to save our company money via test servers, desktop troubleshooting, other mission critical servers, and so far this is proving to be a successful move.

I was helping an LO (Loan Officer) today with his remote desktop. He remotes into a server using remote desktop to check his email. Well, being that it’s on a server obviously there are going to be some size constraints with his email. He wanted to know how to save a backup pst file directly to his desktop from the remote server. Here is a quick how to… before you connect, hit the options button, from there click the local resources tab, down on the bottom is a section called local devices and resources, defaulted there will be the printers and clipboard, hit “more” which will open another section where you can check drives, hit OK to continue on. After connecting, this will connect your local drives remotely allowing your to copy anything from your remote session.

Well…it’s officially ‘08′ and my family and I are blessed to see it. I hope GOD watches and blesses you and your family’s life this new year. I have been doing some research and found out that there aren’t many black/urban tech blogs out there to help people/families of color. So this new year one of my goals is to add one to the masses. You might be thinking… there are plenty of blogs out there. your right there are, but are they from a black person perspective…NO!! Hell Bill Gates said it himself that a lack of black tech’s is hurting the U.S. read hear

WOW….Less than 10%….I, myself, am a black tech with a degree I’m also certified on top of that, even have my own consulting business. I think it’s time to let the people know that. Here is to 08…. Happy New Year.