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Bloggers using Wordpress should, as a matter of priority, upgrade to the newly released Wordpress 2.0.4.
This release contains important security updates and bug fixes. The upgrade only takes minutes to implement on a decent broadband connection.
Some major manufacturers build computers that contain a special recovery partition on the hard drive. In the past, some of the computers didn’t even ship with any disks, instead leaving it up to the user to create a set of media using a special recovery disk creator. The major downside was that this could be done only once for that computer.
However, for those people who haven’t yet created the recovery media set, but are being told that they’ve already made a set and no further disks can be created, there may be a solution.
This solution worked on a Compaq Presario 6000 series machine for which the owner didn’t have a set of media and was being stopped from creating one. After running the utility it was possible to create a recovery disk set. Great to see the Gateway procedure working on the Compaq system.
Please note that you are using this information at your own risk. We’re just putting up this solution because of it being so painful to find out there on the Internet. It is only lawful to create one set of recovery disk media - seems crazy but that is the state of the law as it stands.
Scottish Developers has just published a book review by John A Thomson of Roundtrip Solutions. The book being reviewed is Design for Community.
Design for Community Book Review
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10 Most Destructive PC Viruses Of All Time is an article that chronicals some of the most destructive nasties and the effects they had on computers, the internet and business.
Following on from our earlier post, the BBC has just published an online article highlighting the end of support and security updates for Windows 98 & ME.
Users of Windows 98 or ME need to get themselves upgraded to a more modern operating system that has security update and patching support.
CNET have published an excellent article for all video-bloggers and other camcorder enthusiasts:
Looks like Microsoft didn’t really think through their Windows Genuine Advantage programme before implementing it. Individuals are now suing Microsoft over WGA in the US. This has all the hallmarks of being another “Sony Rootkit” type fiasco and just about anyone should have seen it coming, especially some Redmond lawyers.
WGA should have changed the way people think about Microsoft products and piracy and indeed it has done just that! People are now thinking about how they can escape from Microsoft products to other software that doesn’t compromise their privacy or security. There have been many mistakes in the rollout of WGA, not least the fact it was pre-production code, the EULA did not disclose its full nature or purpose, it was pushed out as a critical security update when it clearly wasn’t, and it phoned home on every reboot. Some of these issues have since be addressed but not before leaving a bitter after-taste with most of the users throughout the world.
A knowledgebase article has been published by Microsoft that informs users how to remove the pilot version of WGA from their system. Sony did the same type of things when their rootkit technology was discovered on user systems. The lawyers are going to draw very strong similiarities between these two cases.
It is being alleged that future versions of WGA will have a big KILL switch within it. People running pirate copies of Microsoft software will be warned and given some time to fix the piracy issue. When the deadline expires so does the software, and if that happens to be Windows then you’ll have one expensive piece of useless electronics. At that point many users may well make the switch to Linux.
In other news, the first virus to pretend that it is WGA has been found in the wild. Let us reiterate this isn’t Microsoft’s WGA software, it is a virus that disguises itself to look like it.
