Microsoft Keynote CES 2009

Some Key topics talk about in this Keynotes are:

Windows 7 — Lighter, Faster, and Reliability. Windows 7 Should boot quicker and faster, and enables cool new interface touch.

Windows 7 — Beta will be available Worldwide on January 9, 2009 and will be available for download on MSDN and Technet.  Also it will be available at : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 For those who want to download it from Microsoft directly.

Windows Live Essentials — Windows live Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery works with Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7. It is available for download worldwide. Dell will also be putting this on their consumer and small business computers.

Windows Mobile — 11 Different Mobile phones.

Verizon Mobile –  Windows Live Search will be available through Verizon and it’s a partnership with Microsoft.

Demo of Windows 7, Live, and Mobile:

Windows 7 will have Windows touch and be able to use net books with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has been designed with the Touch DNA in mind.

Windows Mobile demo with an Panoramic display.

Windows Live Demo –  Various things they discuss here including Photo’s and Silver light.

Windows XBOX:

Viacom might be going to HULU

According to some of the news post people are worried about Viacom leaving Time Warner. Now Here’s where Viacom might be going digital. What do I mean Digital, I am talking about going to HULU. If Viacom doesn’t sign a deal with Time Warner, that would leave a space ope for someone else like Hulu.

So Viacom isn’t happy with Time Warner, or They want to go IPTV. Some of the Headlines I’m seeing are:

• Time Warner Cable Loses Viacom: MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central To Go Dark
• Dispute Between Time Warner and Viacom May Affect Cable Shows
• Viacom could pull MTV off Time Warner Cable
• Viacom And Time Warner Cable Play Chicken; Programmer To Pull Networks Over Fee Dispute

These are just a few that I am seeing pop up around the internet.  So what does that mean to the internet user?  Well On one of there show’s like Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon will begin to stream some of the shows previews on Dec 29, 2009 for it’s next show.  When you go to Nickelodeon Site you get this:

Using Skype with Cellular BroadBand Modems

If your like me you will want to make sure you have the best possible speed and connection with your broad band modem. Here are a few articles to better help with you get the best possible speed with a broad band modem like a Cricket modem:

• Cricket USB UM100 Broadband Wireless Modem Review.
• Get your Cricket Broadband to Activate Manually!
• Cricket Broad Band Modem Extended Review 12/23/08
• Cricket Wireless Broadband Card — How to get better speed!

Some other things to consider are:

• Getting better speeds from your Cellular broadband!
• Understanding a Cellular Modems

These will start to make it better for you to use a modem and get the best possible speeds from the modem.  You have to realize what your coverage area is.  There are many factors in regards to your modem speed but that is something that you will have to figure out how to get better speeds.

How do you use Skype with your Cellular broad band modem?

Somethings to remembers with your broadband modem is you won’t have a good connection no matter how hard you try.   Most cellular carriers don’t want you to us it with VOIP(Voice of Internet Protocol).   So you will have to pay close attention to how you use the bandwidth and what you are doing while making a VOIP call.

Disaster preparation 101 — Data backup

In this one I will talk about Disaster, it happens to all of us from time to time. A fire, a earthquake, a stolen laptop or any number of ways. So what happens to your data, is it stored on the laptop? Is it important very sensitive data? Could you get fired if you lost that data?

These are all questions you must ask yourself when you have laptop. How do you backup your data or even do you have a backup? Having seen this with my own clients, I must wonder if there are people out there who just don’t care. I had a client the other day who gotten a virus and this was a really mean virus. Deleted some very important files when you tried to clean the virus out. She called me in a panic because she couldn’t load up windows? I asked if she had any backups, she said “what’s a backup” . So I sat there discussing this with the client for over 20 minutes. Finally she started to understand, she said she had the OEM Backup DVD but nothing else. She also said she needed help with getting data off the computer. I told her that I would be able to come the next day and I was lucky the virus didn’t do anything else to her data. We were able to retrieve the data from her system. That is where I start my rant , Why would anyone not have backup of there most important data?

Signs of a Computer Infection!

So I was thinking this morning what I missed and I totally missed on how you might be able to tell if you have a computer virus. It does me no good to talk about a virus if you don’t know you’re infected. I was thinking of the times I had a client who had trouble but wasn’t what I thought.

So How do you know?

Some people would say it depends on factors but here are what I call clues that make me suspect a virus:

1. Slow or Sluggish computers –  Here is what I know if the computer is really slowing down and have a dual core or quad core.  If you are running a system and sees a lot of hard drive activity even when the computer is idle then it might be a virus or it could be a program doing what it is supposed to be doing.  So this is somewhat of an indication but not always.
2. Slow internet connection on the computer or on the network — Due to the fact that most people have a router that is connected to all the computers and if you internet connection on all your systems are slower than normal then you could have a virus.  I use Speed Test website to help determine this.

Figuring out the Email-Worm Win32.Zafi.b

This is another just I just saw on the web and wanted to talk about what this little Worm does and what it’s known Aliases:

Email-Worm.Win32.Zafi.b (Kaspersky Lab) is also known as: I-Worm.Zafi.b (Kaspersky Lab), W32/Zafi.b@MM (McAfee), W32.Erkez.B@mm (Symantec), Win32.Hazafi.30720 (Doctor Web), W32/Zafi-B (Sophos), Win32/Zafi.B@mm (RAV), PE_ZAFI.B (Trend Micro), Worm/Zafi.B (H+BEDV), W32/Zafi.B@mm (FRISK), Win32:Zafi-B (ALWIL), I-Worm/Zafi.B (Grisoft), Win32.Zafi.B@mm (SOFTWIN), Worm.Zafi.B (ClamAV), W32/Zafi.B.worm (Panda), Win32/Zafi.B (Eset)

This worm spreads via the Internet as an attachment to infected messages, and also via local and file-sharing networks.
It is written in Assembler, and packed using FSG. It is 12800 bytes in packed form, and 33292 in unpacked form.

This Worm seems to be running through email and file sharing sites, One thing it tries to do is stop the process and deletes:
fvprotect.exe
winlogon.exe
jammer2nd.exe
services.exe

It attempts to detect antivirus program files on the computer and overwrite them with a copy of itself.

It also attempts to conduct DoS attacks on the following sites:

www.2f.hu
www.parlament.hu
www.virusbuster.hu
www.virushirado.hu

Fix Shutdown Problems in Vista!

In the Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft quietly released the patch to fix Windows Vista machine shut problems. This patch should of came sooner.

KB957388

Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

This was not a critical update and it seems to resolve so many issues with compatibility.  One thing it seemed to fix on my system has been the shutdown time.  It is now quite fast, it would normally take me 2 to 3 mins to shutdown, now it does it in less than a Minute.   So if you’ve not installed this update please install it soon.   I would like to know if people are seeing the same thing I am.   I’ve found a great resource on fixing it if you are still having problem, it talks about how to check your system performance. Although this is been doing it lately with these programs not loaded or even running, they still seem to cause problems so now I get the feeling it has to do with legacy programs.  This should fix most of the problem with older programs.

Are you patched, Secunia Says NO

Think you’ve got nothing to worry about, according to Secunia 98% of computers are not fully patched and are vulnerable to some kinda of attack.

So I wanted to talk about this a little and give you a few good ways to make sure you are patched.  There are several ways to get your system up to almost 100%.

Some things to do is make sure you have your Windows systems updated.  This is easy to make sure, if you have an internet connection you can just check for updates.  If you don’t know how to do it, it is quite simple, Just go here.    If you have Windows Vista all you have to do is hit Start and type in the search box “Windows Update” and hit Enter and you will be taken to the update page.

If you have a system that is off of the Net you could use the Clone of Autopatcher Program to do it for you.   You also need to update all your secondary programs such as Audacity, Open Office, and other programs that you use weekly.

You asked for it, Now it’s real — Vista SP2 Dec 4,2008

Beginning Thursday Dec. 4^th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.

[Via Technet]

Yes you heard right, you can get into the Beta of Vista SP2 and not have to wait till April.  Some things to remember:

• It is a Beta
• It will Have Bugs
• It is for people who want to test it out
• It should only be installed for people who need to test it out

Black Friday becomes Blacker!

There aren’t a lot of details yet, but news sources are saying that in Palm Desert, California, two people died after a shooting inside a Toys R Us. One story suggests that the shooting was the result of an altercation between two teenage girls. Apparently, a boy, listed as a juvenile, was responsible for the shooting and was detained.

[Via Gizmodo]

According to Gizmodo, two people are dead and I’ve looked at KMIR News 6 and There is no more information.  I do not like this years black friday it seems like Recession is hitting people harder than people thought!!  Not much else is known but this is going to be the worst Black Friday for a while.   I don’t think there has been any thing like this before.

Looks like a scam to me : Personal Shopping Assistant!

Good afternoon!

We found your resume at _________________ and we would like to propose you a
position of Personal Shopping Assistant.

Imagine having an exciting job with incredible salary (up to $100,000/year) that
lets you use your creativity while being paid to shop. Welcome to the world of
personal shopping!

As we know shopping is the world’s favorite leisure activity, but in our busy
society an increasing number of people need to hire someone to do their
shopping. Thus personal shoppers are more in demand than ever before.

There are absolutely NO START-UP FEES and NO FEES for being employed at this
position. As long as you live in the USA, and you have a credit card or any
other line of credit, have 1 or 2 free hours during the day – you are eligible
for this job!

This is what you will have to do in short:
• Purchase the requested goods using your credit card.
• Send us receipts.
• Wait for us to issue a credit to your credit card in the amount of purchase
plus shipping fee plus your commission which comprises 10%.
• Ship out the goods.
• You are finished, come back for a new list of goods.

Paypal is having troubles today.

According to Sue Bailey and I’ll quote:
Many sellers are reporting a problem this morning with PayPal withdrawals: attempting to move cash to your bank account throws up an error page beginning Sorry, an error occurred after you clicked the last link.
[Via Tamebay]

It seems to be something going on with Paypal. I’ve not tried it to day but I might just to see what happens. If anyone else is having this trouble let me know. Accord to Sue it seems to be limited to Merchants but that doesn’t mean sellers and others are having the same trouble. I also don’t know if it is just affecting the United Kingdom area or not but I wanted to let everyone know that this might affect you to. So let’s find out if it is affecting the US also.

Obama Wins with McCain Leading the 2nd!

With Obama wining the Presidential Elections and McCain giving his concession speech.  We see a lot of potential going to be coming along.  I see the Democrats take charge of the US Senate.  I also see the House seats have gone to the Democrats.  So what is next for the next President, with the inauguration coming soon, what will the new president pick for the Chief of Staff.  I know he has some choices but which one will it be?

In some of the sites with his Bio, they talk about him being the First African American President:

• Biography.com
• Wikipedia.com

Some thing to consider with the Vice President is that it will be Joe Biden.  Now I don’t know very much about him but what I do know comes from the internet.  I wont’t say much because I don’t know much but I will direct you to the pages that I know about:

• Huffinton Post
• Wikipedia.com
• CNN Election Profile
• Joe Biden Delaware Page

I will find out more in the coming weeks, but right now we are making history.  What is your responses on what happened?  Are you happy or angry?  Is the signs of even more economic instabilility?  These are all questions that we have to consider in the time to come!!