Today, a person who goes by the name ‘ant’ has released a note which says that he/she heard from Paul Kim that Windows XP drivers will be available for the upcoming ultraprotable PC called CloudBook.

The CloudBook has a 30 GB hard drive and it will not come with a Windows operating system since the company, Everex, is committed to open-source. The other reason why they decided not to include a Windows OS is because it would increase the price of the computer for the consumer.

It will be available on WalMart and ZaReason’s website on February 15.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD

Over three weeks ago, Microsoft released a bulletin with a code MS08-001 and it ranked an IGMP flaw as “Critical” for Windows Vista, Windows Small Business Server, Windows Home Server, and Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Today, various tech sites including Computerworld posted an article that the bug was highly exploitable even though Microsoft said that “there are a number of factors that make exploitation of this issue difficult and unlikely in real-world conditions.”

The flaw also exists on Windows Server 2003 but it has a lower security vulnerability rating compared to the other Windows operating systems.

Antivirus developer Symantec said, “This is especially critical on Vista, due to its enhanced kernel security mechanisms.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD

Here is an interesting problem. How does someone access Windows Vistas advanced system recovery options (similar to XP’s repair console) if the computer didnt come with a Vista disk? The answer is the Vista Recovery Disk.

The Recovery disk is essentially the Windows Vista install disk, but with the operating system install files stripped out. Just download the ISO, burn it to a CD and boot the computer with it.

Note: This will only work on systems with Windows Vista installed.
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A software has been released to cut down Windows Vista’s installation size. The software is called vLite which removes Windows Media Player, Windows Mail, and other utilities before installing the operating system.

“This tool doesn’t use any kind of hacking, all files and registry entries are protected as they would be if you install the unedited version, only with the changes you select,” said the developer, Dino Nuhagic.

“A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that’s maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit.” said Eric Traut who is a Microsoft engineer.

Nuagic does not have an exact figure of how many people downloaded his program.

Source: PC World

Most business advisers now days will you tell you that should have a website for your business because it can help bring in new customers. This is definitely true because a website can say so much more than a small Yellow Pages ad can. However, you can drive all the customers you want to your website but unless the website can sell, no one will be calling you. Here are some tips (which I use myself) to get more people calling you.
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According to various sources, the Windows 7 Milestone 1 has been leaked. PC World included reports from a Neowin.net user and a Youtube member.

The Neowin member said “On my primary machine, it asked for my SATA driver (never happened when installing Vista, as my drives were set as IDE in BIOS). After adding the driver from my USB thumb drive, it would finally install. It didn’t boot after first restart, however. On my laptop it installed perfectly, but with no driver support for the video card. After numerous tries I gave up in the end, so Aero is now left in the dark.”

The Youtube member insisted that the screen shots that he posted on his web site are not fake.

The Windows 7 Milestone 1 was sent out to OEM partners earlier this month according to bloggers.

Source: PC World

Computerworld has posted an article on their website about a bug that exists in Windows Home Server.

“Supported editions of Windows Small Business Server 2003 and Windows Home Server contain the same affected code as Windows Server 2003. [However] Windows Small Business Server and Windows Home Server configurations have IGMP [(Internet Group Management Protocol] enabled by default and will result in a greater exposure to the same vulnerability,” said Microsoft in a notice

A patch is available for this bug and Microsoft urged its customers to apply the patch to protect their computers.

This bug was patched approximately three weeks ago but Windows Home Server was not listed as an affected product.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD

A lot of people have reported that they were unable to open their files that they created with Adobe Premier and After Effects software after they installed the 7.4 version of Apple’s Quicktime multimedia software.

The product manager of After Effects suggests that users should not install the update until both Adobe and Apple figure out a solution to the problem.

Users cannot revert back to an older version of Quicktime easily according to the article at The Register.

The error that shows up in After Effects is a DRM-related error which reads: “After Effects error: opening movie - you do not have permission to open this file (-54).”

Source: The Register

Various tech sites have reported that Best Buy digital picture frames were “contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process.” The products were sold under the name ‘Insignia’ which is an in-house brand of Best Buy.

The company said, “We apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused as a result of this incident.”

This is not the first time that this kind of news was released. Just a few weeks ago, a report was also released about a different retail company.

The particular product that was affected had a model number of NS-DPF10A. That particular model had been pulled from the store locations.

Source: The Register

We’ve all heard of of the dodgy car mechanic that will say all sorts of things are wrong even though you only brought your car in for a simple oil change. People are beginning to fear a new type of tradesman, the dodgy computer repair technician.

So whats wrong with the computer repair industry?
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