Next Tuesday == Windows update alert!

From the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog, a hint at what updates will be available next week, a brief list was posted on the blog. I've excerpted the basic info below:
*Five Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows.
*Two Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office.
*One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual Studio.
*One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office.
*One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Step-by-Step Interactive Training.
*One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Data Access Components.
*One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft Windows Defender, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint.
And, of course.... "These updates may require a restart."
The updates are set to be released at 10am PT 02/13/2007.
Welcome to the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog! : February 2007 Advance Notification

--MissM
P.S. Has anybody tried Yahoo's pipes? It looks interesting when you can get to the actual site. But, I've been too busy to try it. Maybe that's what Gail, Jack and Joe are doing??? :)

Amazing weather phenomenon

This is too excellent to not post:



[h/t Random Good Stuff]

--MissM

Update: Its Youtube Day! Installing Vista. Tooooo Funny

Thoughts on Comments re; NVidia Driver Mess

As those of you who listened to this week's show know, I sided with NVidia in this. I know just how hard it is to accomodate the DRM in Vista and DirectX 10. I've spent over 50 hours reading the specs and documentation on just how things have to be.

So I found it rather strange that NVidia fanboys have taken such exception. I have deleted comments containing foul language regarding this and received over 50 emails, not one actually reflecting my position on this matter. I don't really appreciate being cursed, though I can live with it. The threats against me I can live without and ask those who are so incensed at me to download the show and hear exactly what I had to say before leaping to conclusions because I posted a news item. That item does not reflect my position at all.

Jack

Turbocharging the Tablet Computer

XP powered tablet PCs were neat. But the platform seems to come of age with Vista. Great strides have been made. This little 2 page mini-review will do more to tell you how much progress has been made in the platform itself than it will about the 5 machines discussed. It's definitely worth a look.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-04-07

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 02-04-07. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Geek Meet 2007

Geek Meet 2007 will be held the weekend of May 4-7, 2007 in Boston MA.

Geek Meet will take place at the Residence Inn by Marriott, located in Norwood, MA (just a short ride into Boston). For more details on the hotel, please visit http://www.marriott.com/BOSBW. We have negotiated a group rate of $129.00 a night for a studio suite, and $189.00 a night for a two bedroom suite. Reservations must be made by 4/4/07. To make a reservation, you can contact the hotel directly at 781-278-9595 and mention that you are with the Computer Geek Meet group.

While in Boston, we are talking about walking the Freedom Trail. For more information on the Freedom Trail, please visit http://www.thefreedomtrail.org.

Some other ideas we are floating are a harbor cruise.

Are you planning on coming to Geek Meet? Do you have any ideas on what you want to do? Send us an email at geekmeet07@oncomputers.info and let us know.

"Links from the Gregg Zone!"

Joe is playing around with the new Vista O.S. these days so I thought I’d look around and see if I could dig up some interesting sites that might be related.

a) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7080932 This is a N.P.R. interview with Bill Gates on the release.

b) http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10995 This is a site with some tips and shortcuts.

c) http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=36266 Another tip site, with some additional stuff.

d) http://www.technewsworld.com/story/50236.html This site compares Linux, and Vista, thought it had an interesting take on why Linux is not used more in the market place.

e)http://youtube.com/results?search_query=microsoft+vista&search=Search At the time I captured the link 574 video clips dealing with vista, would suggest staying to 3 stars and up, unless the clip has had less than 100 views, or sounds interesting.

f) http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=221

2) I thought I would offer some fun but educational kid’s sites that I have come across. I have found some of the more complicated subjects I get interested in, are easier for me to grasp if I search for sites aimed at students. It has proven to be a useful tactic for me when I’m trying to understand something I know very little about. I usually I start at the high school level; college level is about the same as a book, or even more complex. I hate to admit it, but on occasion I have even started at the lower grades, but that’s life in the Gregg zone.

a)http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi

b)http://bensguide.gpo.gov/

c)http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/

d)http://www.firstpeople.us/

e)http://www.doi.gov/kids/

f)http://www.sonomalibrary.org/homework/uskids.html

g)http://www.win.org/library/matls/govdocs/kids.htm

h)http://www.census.gov/mso/www/educate/kidspage.htm

i)http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/whlife/index.html

J)http://www.kids.gov/

These are mostly about government because that was the area I was looking into when I thought about highlighting them, if anyone thinks this is a good idea, would like more like this, but on other subjects let me know, and I will start saving them as I find them.

3) I decided to write a little something about www.ebay.com , ebay can be a very interesting pastime. It is pretty amazing the items that you can find there. I learned if you want to buy something it is worth looking to see if it is at ebay. I was going to set up a second monitor in my living room to go with my HP media center, to do this I needed a 25 foot vga monitor extension cable, looking at the normal sites on the internet I found it ranging from $45.00 to $65.00, on ebay I found the same cable, same brand everything, new sealed for $12.50. The most recent example was one have been an interest in for a week or two, the Satellite on T.V. on Your P.C. soft ware, (see below), when looking at sites on the internet I found prices ranging from $19.95 to $199.00, Price range at ebay from $1.74 to $14.95. While I am sure there is a vast difference in the soft ware qualities, and I intend to do a lot more investigation I just wanted to point out the difference on price.

Now for a few little tricks; if you are looking for a particular item especially a collectable, try looking for it in the search engine, but try various misspellings. The angle here is that if someone misspelled the item in the title line, very few people will find it, unless they spell it the same way, hence no bidding competition. I’ve seen things that should sell for a hundred or more going for four or five dollars. You can enter several misspellings in the area that will email you about a new listing, patience can payoff, you can even find something to buy, only with the idea of reselling it. If you have a specific area of interest and would like to see lots of related items, but looking for deals. Try typing in a general search topic like civil war, as opposed to civil war badges, buttons, etc. However the trick here is to do it at a very odd time, say from 2:00am to 5:00am. A person who does not properly select a good end time for their auction, say, entering am instead of pm will lose most of the late action. At those odd times there are very few people bidding, your only real competition will be the advance bidders, using a service, or the ones who guessed the end price.

If you are interested in more tips on ebay let me know I’ll do another segment, maybe dealing with selling, or some of the very strange things out there. Like how to buy the stuff confiscated at air port security checks, Fiji mermaids, and some other interesting stories related to ebay.

4) I’m really looking for some input in this particular area, it seems there is a awful lot of stuff out there on this subject, and I’m extremely interested, but I’m really limited in my knowledge as to how these things work. What I am looking into is the Free Satellite T.V. on your P.C. downloadable software. The promises run up to 3200 T.V. stations world wide, allot of them in high def., plus thousands of radio stations. I have found many sites, selling lots of different packages; prices range from $1.74 at ebay up to one I saw for $199.00 quite a spread.

My understanding is (and I may be totally off base) the main differences between the programs is in the format for sorting, and locating what you are looking for, a T.V. guide with 3200 stations would be ridiculous, some of the download sites show screen pictures breaking things down by country etc. some show nothing, I would guess they leave you lost and confused. I’m sure there must also be differences in resolution, audio quality, and maybe stuff like recording, searching, etc., but I would think the actual part of the software that captures the signal off the internet would be basically the same.

The idea of telling my cable company to take a hike, really appeals to me, everything I have read says it is 100% legal, some of the software review sites say that some of the programs work extremely well, while the majority are a waste of money. I need to know how to sort it out. The idea of being able to hook all of my televisions up to the computer, and watch T.V. from different countries all over the world for free is amazing to me, please let me know what you think about this.

Here is some of the sites I looked at a google search will turn up many more:

http://www.articlesbase.com/entertainment-articles/pc-satellite-tv--review-of-satellite-tv-for-pc-2006-software-32339.html

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=95214

http://www.tvshowdirect.com/google/?gclid=CMHW4v3w_4kCFQUgggodCCHIRg

http://www.tvonpcelite.com/index.htm