Year: 2009

Do you want a Windows 7 Beta key?

Paul

Update See bottom:

I recently got 3 beta keys for Windows 7 Beta. I decide we are going to have some fun. IF you want one of the 2 beta keys here is how you do it. I want you to twitter it up on twitter. I would like you to make a Tinyurl using your twitter account so I know who sent the most people my way. Here’s how you do it:

Go to Tinyurl.com then you put this page in and tell it you want it to be made with your twitter name without the @ sign(it would look like this : http://tinyurl.com/twitterusername). The 2 most Referrers to come to my site in this weekend and leave a comment will get a reply from my twitter account saying they won and asking for there email account. I want as many people to see this as possible. If you want a beta key for Windows 7 then advertise people to come to my site and find out how they could win themselves. I only have two extra Beta keys. I used one right now to activate this Windows Beta but I will give the other two away for who ever brings in the 2 most people to my site.

tinyurlcustom

[ad#ad2-right]This end at 10pm EST Sunday Night Jan 11, 2009, so you have that long to get people to come to my site and using the tinyurl Custom Alias option to send people to my site or to this page.   I say this one last time, the top 2 people using the tinyurl to bring people to my site will get the site.   On the side note the other requirement is to have people leave a comment say who referred them to the site.   I want to make sure people don’t just create a URL and come that way to many times.  So Let’s talke about the Rules:

  1. Use a Custome URL to bring People to my site

  2. Leave a Comment with twitter name who brought them to my site.

I’ll add it up Sunday night 10:00 PM EST January 18, 2009, and will be twittering who wins on twitter.   So go at it people send people my way.

According to a blog there seems to be sending out keys that are the same all over the place. I am going to guess that after 2.5 due an over the net activation that these will become invalid. So activate as quickly as you can. I’ve also gotten the same keys from Microsoft also exactly the same Keys this blog is posting so I guess the contest for the 2 keys is now NULL and Void. Sorry guys, didn’t know thought they were unique keys. If you need a key go to that website and get your key!!

First Impression of Windows 7 Beta!!

Paul

As of getting this beta from Windows Download server, and yet having to activate it. I’d thought I share some of my impressions of this Operating System. Although I must make sure you all know this isn’t the final version of Windows 7, and it will undoubtedly go through some major changes before it is over.

windows-7-beta1

As you can see I’ve installed this onto an Intel System 2 core system 1.6ghz and 2 gigs of ram.  I must say that this was a really smooth transition from Vista to Windows 7.   I don’t think it has ever been this good with Vista.   Something that I noticed right off is that now I can have User Account Control Customized.   Yes you’ve heard it right some things you can do with Windows 7 is turn it all the way off(Do not Notify Me) to Always on (Always Notify Me).

win7uac

With this one I can now not have it Dim all the time when It wants to warn me.  This is the best part of this UAC no longer will I get annoyed every time it warns me.   I’m liking the feature more and more.

[ad#ad2-right]So I’ve just installed this and wanted to see what would work and what wouldn’t, so far here’s what I’ve found to work without a hitch:

and what doesn’t seem to work right now is:

Later on I’ll do a more complete list of items that will or will not work with this beta.  Although this is something that really surprises with most of the programs right now.  I’ve not had any major issue installing the software for the ones that work.  Only small hitch was for the Cricket Broad band software I had to tell it to install the driver anyway.   I am really liking this and hope they keep it the same all the way through.  I like the speed of access and the preview panes for finding what I need to find.  I also like the backgrounds they have installed as default but that is one thing that will most definitely change as they progress they will find even better ones.  Now all I have to do is get the Beta Key and I’ll be set until August.

Patch list for Patch Tuesday January 2009

Paul

I just got the update of what will be patched and what will I expect to be patched, Here is my list of what will be coming on Patch Tuesday, January 13, 2009:

  • [ad#ad2-right]Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [January 2009] (KB905866) — Keeps those junk emails from getting into your system.

  • Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – January 2009 (KB890830) — This is a usual thing for Microsoft and should not be messed with.

  • Windows XP Service Pack 3 (KB936929) — Changes made to the were made for the Metadata but nothing else.

  • Critical update — Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2,  Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2,Windows Server 2003 with SP1 for Itanium-based Systems and Windows Server 2003 with SP2 for Itanium-based Systems.

  • Moderate Update — Windows Vista and Windows Vista Service Pack 1,Windows Vista x64 Edition and Windows Vista x64 Edition Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems, Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems, Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems.  (Windows Server 2008 Core Installation affected)

These were the only I could find that I expect to be deployed on the next windows updates.  I expect the really bad updates they are going to wait till last minute to tell anyone.  When they become available I’ll let you know which ones and how quickly they need to be installed.

The Cricitcal and Moderate Update for Microsoft are the same but since the NT Kernal is used for Vista and the Servers it isn’t affected as bad as the Window’s Kernal.   I would guess it will be a core installation program that would be the culprit and Microsoft is going to patch it.   I won’t find out about it till Tuesday but Microsoft has said it will only be a few updates so that is good.  We will have to wait and see!!

Microsoft Keynote CES 2009

Paul

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Some Key topics talk about in this Keynotes are:

Windows 7 — Lighter, Faster, and Reliability. Windows 7 Should boot quicker and faster, and enables cool new interface touch.

Windows 7 — Beta will be available Worldwide on January 9, 2009 and will be available for download on MSDN and Technet.  Also it will be available at : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 For those who want to download it from Microsoft directly.

Windows Live Essentials — Windows live Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery works with Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7. It is available for download worldwide. Dell will also be putting this on their consumer and small business computers.

Windows Mobile — 11 Different Mobile phones.

Verizon Mobile —  Windows Live Search will be available through Verizon and it’s a partnership with Microsoft.

Demo of Windows 7, Live, and Mobile:

Windows 7 will have Windows touch and be able to use net books with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has been designed with the Touch DNA in mind.

Windows Mobile demo with an Panoramic display.

Windows Live Demo —  Various things they discuss here including Photo’s and Silver light.

Windows XBOX:

[ad#ad2-left]Halo Wars — Strategy game and will Available February 28, 2009. The Bungie Will have a demo version February 5, 2009 and will be available for download.

Halo 3 ODST — Will be available in the Fall of 2009. New Characters, new events and will be like Halo 3.

Various stuff about Xbox Live 360

These were just the main things that I thought was important to let people know what was mainly the important highlights of this keynote. I will recommend everyone to go and watch it for yourself, I am sure I’ve missed something that someone would consider very important and understand that. This however is a personal and will be different in everyone. I watched this and am excited and can’t wait for windows 7 to be released so I can get my hands on this and see how it fairs with a Vista CPU and GPU. So only time will tell. I hope you enjoyed this little run down. Please feel free to leave a comment and talk about this or anything else in the Disqus community.

Macworld 2009 Roundup

Paul

I’m not a really big fan of Macintoshes but I thought I’d share with you what happened at Macworld and what is coming out this month after the announcements. So here’s the run down on Macworld Expo 2009:

  • [ad#ad2-right]17 Inch Mac Book Pro (Buy it From the Amazon Store) — “$2,799, 2.66 GHz and 4 GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive” and They have a battery exchange program for those who have bad batteries.   Engadget has some really good video’s of this new Laptop.  I also looked around Slashdot did a really good job on the summary of what happened at Macworld.   They are claiming it will be able to run 8 hours on battery but I will wait to see what people say after they get there hands on this.

  • I-Life 09 (Buy the older version from Amazon 2008) — Today at Macworld, Apple showed it off.  You can see the photos from Gizmodo and it looks nice.  Some of the stuff this can do is Facial Recognition, also use it with Flickr and Facebook.   Geotag Reversal so it can look up where you took the picture and pin point it on the map for later reference.  I-life 09 will cost 79$ solo or 99$ for Family.

  • Garage Band 09 (Buy Garageband 2008 Tutorial DVD from Amazon) — Some very popular guitar artists teaches you how to play a guitar.     Some Names that teach you how to play are Sting, And Noah Johns.  You will be able to buy more lessons on Itunes for 3.99 a lesson!  Not bad if you want to teach yourself.

Last thing and this is really important, Itunes will begin selling 3 tiers of songs 69 cents, 99 cents, and 1.29$ depending the popularity of the songs.  Apple also dropped 8 Million Songs from DRM.  They expect to have it up to 10 Million songs buy March.  Apple will also sell songs over the air on the Iphone 3G (Buy the Iphone 3G fro Amazon), so you no longer have to have your computer near you to buy a song.    This is about all Apple talked about at Macworld Keynote, if you have any other things that I missed buy all means leave a comment.