Tag: Windows

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iTunes 8 is Now Available for Download

As promised, iTunes 8 is available for download. Apple has also updated iTunes Terms of Service dated September 04th, 2008.

What’s new in iTunes 8

iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.

With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.

iTunes 8 and iTunes U are now accessible with VoiceOver on your Mac.

More info to follow.

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Microsoft Makes People Talking About Its Ad Campaign

Microsoft has released the first ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. According to the software giant, the ad is only the tip of the iceberg in the attempt to salvage the company’s image due to poor Windows Vista perceptions. Microsoft’s defenders are hoping the ad would fire back at Apple for all the “Get A Mac” attack ads.

One thing everyone seems to agree, the “Shoe Circus” doesn’t make any sense at all. Microsoft assures that the ad will make sense somehow as it progresses.

One thing is definitely wrong with this campaign. It makes a bad first impression. No matter what Microsoft wil unveil next, there will always be that bitter aftertaste of this first ad.

On the other hand, this ad campaign is accidentally genius, because now the series of tubes are talking about it. They say that bad publicity is stilla publicity.

Microsoft is definitely on to something, and this time they are talking about “nothing”.

Just look for “Shoe Circus” for the ad.

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HP MediaSmart: System Temperature and Warranty Policy

According to HP, a small percentage of HP MediaSmart EX470/EX475 comes with redundant sensors that is showing false temperature readings. HP is providing a software hot-fix for the unit equipped with the faulty sensors. HP will not make any hardware repair on the affected units.

Based HP Technical Support:

The attached software patch disables the notification of the redundant sensor and ensures that you will not receive false hardware alerts in the future. The key temperature reading for your Mediasmart Server is the CPU reading. This sensor is the focus of the temperature control design and is functioning properly, so you can be assured that your HP MediaSmart Server is operating as designed.

The software patch is available only through HP Technical Support, and is not available through HP Web-Site.

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According to HP Technical Support, RAM upgrade will void MediaSmart warranty. To be honest, this is not a good move by HP. The system comes with a mere 512MB RAM, which is not enough for any real server task. Try installing McAfee Total Protection Service add-in, and the Windows Home Server’s performance will turn into a crawl.

Crucial is selling compatible RAM upgrade for HP MediaSmart EX470/EX475, unfortunately HP Warranty Policy does not support such upgrade.

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HP MediaSmart EX470/EX475 Hardware Upgrade

Well, I should have looked for some informations before I started opening up the MediaSmart server. Apparently someone already went through with it, and put up a really nice instructions on how to do it.

It took me quite a chunk of my time figuring out the way to disassemble the unit. After the RAM upgrade is done, I found the instructions on the internet. I could’ve saved a lot of time opening the unit.

Anyway, what’s done is done. The next thing I want to do is upgrading the processor.

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Microsoft Update Tuesday for August 2008

August 12th, 2008. Second Tuesday of the Month. Happy Microsoft Patch Tuesday!

Microsoft unleashes updates for Windows and Office products. Windows users should be getting the notifications through Windows Update/Microsoft Update. As usual, WGA (not Writers Guild of America) is still in effect.

For Mac users, you can either let Microsoft AutoUpdate takes care of the updates or get it straight from Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update

Have a safe Tuesday!

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Paul Thurrott Spews Garbage Again

As expected, Paul Thurrott the original Microsoft Defender spews garbage again on Microsoft P.R. Weekly a.k.a. Windows Weekly podcast episode 70 (yeah, it is podcast not necast, Leo Laporte).

Thurrott defends Microsoft’s pathetic attempt at damage control known as “Mojave Experiment.”

It seems that Leo Laporte is feeding Thurrott’s ego with some compromises about the propaganda. Thurrott is quick to dismiss all the problems with Microsoft’s “Mojave Experiment” propaganda. According to Mr. Microsoft Defender, “Mojave Experiment” is so effective in making people talking about Windows Vista again. Yeah, people are now talking about how stupid this “Mojave Experiment” propaganda is. Even John C. Dvorak, tech pundit/troll extraordinaire calls “Mojave Experiments” makes Microsoft humiliates ignorant users and itself.

In addition to the “Mojave Experiment” garbage, Thurrott subconsciously acknowledges that Microsoft has only been selling Windows Vista Licenses and not installed on computers. Of course Thurrott eludes to elaborate more regarding the sales numbers (Microsoft P.R./Windows Weekly 70 18:00 mark). Thurrott in the past has been quick to “disect” any statistics regarding non-Microsoft products such as Mozilla Firefox, the iPod and iPhone, Linux, Macs, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3.

Thurrott is so excited with Microsoft effort to strike back against Apple “Get A Mac” ads. Then again, Thurrott was so excited about the original Zune.

Paul Thurrott is nothing more than Microsoft P.R. in a Tech Journalist skin.

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MobileMe Echo Chamber

Apple started the .Mac to MobileMe transitions on July 9th, 2008. The transitions was anything but a smooth process. First, it was delayed by 2 hours. The .Mac web-interface was down for the next several days while Me.com was having problems. Despite of the troubles, most .Mac/MobileMe sevices were online. After a few days, the MobileMe launch finally was going somewhere. The web services went online although the performance was considerably slower than expected. Later on Apple re-explains and re-defines what MobileMe service is. The “Push” services only available between the “cloud” and the iPhone/iPod touch. Apple is still working on the “Push” service for Mac OS X/Windows. Apple also apologizes to their customers and adds 30 days extensions to MobileMe subscriptions. As of July 21st, 2008 Apple acknowledges some problems with Webmail access affecting 1% of MobileMe Members.

MobileMe launch is riddled with problems, but it is far from being a disaster as echoed by many tech-news site and blog postings. Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott called MobileMe launch as a “Crash and Burn” disaster.

Now, let’s take a look at a few things here:

  • Apple is struggling with MobileMe launch.
  • Describing MobileMe launch as “Crash and Burn” is not correct. If it crashed and burned, then MobileMe service would not work at all right now. Then again, this comes from Paul Thurrott the original Microsoft Defender. Thurrott thrives on bashing anything non-Microsoft.
  • The same things are repeated over and over. “MobileMe launch is a failure.” The fact is those who are affected by the outtage tend to be luder than anyone else. The rest are just parotting each other. Those who have MobileMe working are pretty much saying nothing.
  • MobileMe members are paying for the service and they are entitled for some compensations from Apple. In this case Apple is giving a 30 days extension to all MobileMe members. That counts for something.

Despite all of the troubles its having, MobileMe is working. Most of the blog-postings regarding MobileMe are merely copied and pasted from another site. Welcome to the echo chamber.