Vista SP1 Beta

30th August 2007
James Bannan
apcmag.com

This week, the Microsoft Windows Vista Team announced details about the official beta of Vista Service Pack 1.

With the private beta having been leaked and done the rounds for the last few weeks (read our in-depth analysis here), Microsoft’s announcement doesn’t carry very many surprises. Still, it’s always informative to get the update straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

As expected, SP1 will contain all the updates currently available for Windows Vista. However, Microsoft aren’t holding off on deploying updates while waiting for the service pack’s release. Various non-critical but customer-driven updates have been released via Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center (namely the performance and reliability updates), and with Vista so closely tied to online Microsoft services, it’s good to see that being made use of.

However, SP1 contains more than just patches and hotfixes. It will extend Vista’s functionality in various areas, namely reliability and performance (as we’ve already seen), administration experience and support for emerging hardware and standards. All the available technical detail is in the SP1 Beta Whitepaper.

Skype outage hits 220 million users

Skype outage hits 220 million users

Skype, the online phone company, said today that an outage which left its users unable to make cheap calls was caused by a fault in its software

Skype, the online phone company, was today working to fix an outage that left its 220 million users unable to make cheap calls over the internet.

The company said this afternoon said that its service was stabilising but that it had not yet resolved the problem, which was apparently caused by a fault in its software that means users could not sign on.

"We’re on the road to recovery. Skype is stabilising, but this process may continue throughout the day - we're not out of the woods yet," a statement on Skype's website said.

Skype's chief security officer, Kurt Sauer, told the New York Times that what had happened was caused by "a unique set of events, the genesis of which is not entirely understood".

Entire article.

Basic Computer Networking Information

Have you ever been interested in the basics of how computer networks work?

Here's a handy little blog called Basic Computer Networking that covers the basics. Enjoy your "geek"* reading!

* Hey, that's a term of endearment! : )

Outlook TIP: Show Contact Names in Varying Displays

Thanks, from Tech Republic blog tip.

How to change the display of Outlook contacts

To address a new e-mail message, you may click the To button to display all your contacts. By default, Outlook displays the names in alphabetical order, by first name. If you have many contacts, you might prefer to see the list in last-name order. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to make the switch. To display contacts in last-name order, do the following:

• Choose E-mail Accounts from the Tools menu in Mail view to launch the E-mail Accounts Wizard.
• Select the View Or Change Existing Directories Or Address Books option and click Next.
• Select Outlook Address and click Change.
• Select the Contacts lists one by one. Most of you will have just one item — Contacts: Click the File As (Smith, John) option in the Show Names By section for the Contacts list you want to sort by last name.
• Click Close and then Finish.
  NOTE: You may have to close and reopen Outlook to see the change.

I let Outlook do the work whenever I can by entering the contact’s name in the To field. Outlook then displays and updates a limited list of contacts based on the characters I enter.

Free Anti-Rootkit Software from Sophos

Free Anti-Rootkit Scanner Software: From Sophos v 3.1

Use this as a way to verify that your computer is not ikely acting as a Bot. New version 3.1 here to download.

Researching running processes?

Here's a handy little site to lookup a process to see if it's legit and which vendor wrote it. Thanks techsoup!

http://www.tasklist.org/tasklist_c.html

Test your Internet Connection: Upload and download speeds

Here's a simple, nicely designed, site to test your Internet connection upload and download speeds. Thanks techsoup.org. http://www.speedtest.net/

HiJack This 2.0.2 released by TrendMicro

HijackThis version 2.0.2 available now

Released in July. A good tool for reviewing registry and running services on a PC. Best for a tech type to review the findings in the log file.

Here's the notice from TrendMicro and here's the link to download.