Windows XP SP3 Beta, Note The “Beta” Part.

I knew it might happen, but I did it anyway. On many occasions, I tend to place myself at the the cutting edge and the bleeding edge of technology. In this case, it is all about Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta. Yes, I know that it is a Beta release. Yes I read through Microsoft’s notes regarding the beta release. I told myself, “What could go wrong? Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta is a collection of security patches and then some. Nothing is gonna go wrong.”

The first install on a relatively new computer encounters zero problems so far. The second computer also encounters zero problems to date. So I installed SP3 on a freshly installed Windows XP with SP2 on a Gateway laptop. Everything seems to be working normally with the exceptions of the audio driver. For some reasons, the system wouldn’t load the audio driver. I tried to reinstall the audio driver, but it wouldn’t install at all. OK, that’s just a minor setback, but it’d be a lot nicer to have audio on the laptop. After an hour of troubleshooting, it appeared that there’s some incompatibilities with Windows XP SP3 Beta and RealTek HD Audio driver. I then fresh install Windows XP with SP2 on the Gateway laptop to get it properly working again. No SP3 for this laptop.

Some friends called me and told me that their computer was not working. I finally got to their place and work on the computer. Found out that many things went wrong with this Compaq computer. I tried system restore, but it was not much help. After uninstalling and re-installing device drivers and applications, the computer is working again. Took me a good 3 hours to get that computer up and running again; without having to reinstall the system. For some reasons, I had the idea on installing Windows XP SP3 Beta on this computer. It took a little bit over 30 minutes for SP3 installations, and the computer rebooted. Then the computer rebooted. Then it rebooted. Then it rebooted. Obviously, it was a bad idea to install Windows XP SP3 Beta on this system. I managed to boot windows into Safe Mode, and uninstall SP3 Beta.

The lesson is that Windows XP SP3 Beta is still a “Beta”. It still has some kinks to be worked out.

Year 2007 Expires on December 31st at Midnight

Despite all efforts to hack the flow of time, the “year 2007” expires on December 31st at midnight. Teams of hackers are still working on cracking the encryptions to prevent “year 2007” from expiring. Unfortunately, their efforts so far bear no fruits.

If you are affected by the expirations, please do not panic. Upon the expiration of “year 2007”, “year 2008” will automatically activate and resume any tasks carried over from “year 2007”. If for some reasons, you found out that other people in different part of the world were already upgraded to “year 2008”, please do not panic. That’s because you’re living in a different time zone that is a little bit behind the time. As a matter of fact, numbers of part of the world have already had “year 2008” activated at the time of this writing.

Q: Would I need a new serial number to upgrade from “year 2007” to year 2008″?
A: No. You don’t need any serial numbers at all.

Q: Is “year 2008” backward compatible with “year 2007”?
A: Generally yes. But remember to date anything with “2008” instead of “2007”. Let alone using “2009”.

Q: Where do I sign up for year 2009 beta testing?
A: Unfortunately such beta program has not been announced yet.

Q: I love “year 2007”, and I refuse to upgrade to “year 2008”. What can I do to stay with year 2007?
A: In a way it is a mandatory upgrade. You can pretend that it’s still
year 2007, but it’s going to be hard to interact with everyone else. There is one other extreme solution, but I won’t get into that; let alone recommending or condoning it.

Q: Will year 2008 performs better than year 2007.
A: Results may vary. It also depends on what happened in
year 2007.

Q: Will my love life be better after upgrading to year 2008?
A: Can’t answer that one. You’re on your own, buddy!

Q: What kind of warranty does year 2008 come with?
A:
Year 2008 comes with a limited lifetime warranty; the lifetime of “year 2008”. It’s guaranteed to run until December 31st, 2008. It also comes with guaranteed upgrade to year 2009.

Q: Can I get full refund if I don’t like year 2008?
A: You’ll get full refund of the amount you paid for purchasing the
year 2008. Basically you’ll get refund in the amount of nothing.

Q: I think I like year 2008. But can it run Linux?
A: You dirty unbathed Linux Hippie!

Q: Should I buy an iPhone along with year 2008?
A: Should you? Buy it if you want it. I’d suggest to wait until Steve Jobs is done with his annual Keynote at MacWorld San Francisco. If you’re recently given a T-Mobile Dash after you dropped and broke your Treo, just wait and listen to me!

Year 2008 is expected to be the time of many events, which some of them are carried over from year 2007. In the world of technology, many events are scheduled to take place in year 2008. Confirmed events to take place shortly after year 2008 activates are CES and MacWorld San Francisco.

According to many rumors, speculations, analysis, and pure imaginations; the followings are expected to be announced at MacWorld San Francisco 2008:

  • iPhone announcements. Second Generation iPhone with 3G network support?
  • New Mac announcements. New MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Mac mini?
  • Updates to Apple TV with more features.
  • iTunes movie rental.
  • More DRM-free music on iTunes Store.
  • New Apple software. What could it be?
  • iPhone software updates.
  • More news on iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).
  • Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard update. (10.5.3)
  • A new device from Apple. OK, this one can be classified “made-up”. Take that, Apple!

to be continued.

Apple Posts “Security Update 2007-009 1.1” for Mac OS X

Apple releases “Security Update 2007-009 1.1” for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.1) and Tiger (10.4.11).
This update to the Security Update addresses issues of Safari crashing after applying “Security Update 2007-009”.

12/21/2007

Security Update 2007-009 1.1 (10.4.11 Universal)27.4 MB
Security Update 2007-009 1.1 (10.4.11 PPC)15.9 MB
Security Update 2007-009 1.1 (10.5.1)35.6 MB

About Security Update 2007-009 1.1
Security Update 2007-009 1.1 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

Core Foundation
CUPS
Flash Player Plug-in
Launch Services
perl
python
Quick Look
ruby
Safari
Samba
Shockwave Plug-in
Spin Tracer

Apple Posts “Security Update 2007-009” for Mac OS X

Apple releases “Security Update 2007-009” for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.1) and Tiger (10.4.11).

Apple Software Update icon small

12/17/2007

Security Update 2007-009 (10.4.11 Universal)27.4 MB
Security Update 2007-009 (10.4.11 PPC)15.9 MB
Security Update 2007-009 (10.5.1)35.6 MB

About Security Update 2007-009
Security Update 2007-009 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

Core Foundation
CUPS
Flash Player Plug-in
Launch Services
perl
python
Quick Look
ruby
Safari
Samba
Shockwave Plug-in
Spin Tracer

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – December 2007

Yep, it’s that time of the month again. Not that one! It’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday.

The usual updates for Windows and Microsoft Office.

…too lazy to copy and paste the details for now…… I’ll update this later.

Camino 1.5.4 is Released

The Camino Project has just released Camino 1.5.4 to address web compatibility.

Camino 1.5.4 contains the following improvements over version 1.5.3:

  • Upgraded to version 1.8.1.11 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, which includes several critical security and stability fixes.
  • Improved compatibility with some DHTML websites.
  • Camino can now set the default browser or feed reader in cases where no application had already been set as the default.
  • Sub-menus in the History menu now open more quickly and are capped at 50 items.
  • The Camino application icon now contains a 512×512 pixel version for better integration with Mac OS X 10.5.
  • On Mac OS X 10.5, the first tooltip displayed on a page now appears properly.
  • The status bar now takes on the dark grey, rounded appearance on Mac OS X 10.5.
  • Camino will now purge expired site icons from the site icon cache when quitting.
  • Improved ad-blocking.

Download Camino here:
http://caminobrowser.org/download/releases/1.5.4/