All Posts by Paul

Microsoft apologizes for Windows Update snafus

Paul

Microsoft has been having all sorts of problems with automatic Windows updates lately. First, it was reports of users who had turned off automatic update installations finding that their computers had installed and rebooted anyway without their consent, then some enterprise Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) users found out that Windows Desktop Search (WDS) had been installed without administrator approval. Microsoft acknowledged the first problem but denied the second, then relented and issued an apology via WSUS product manager Bobbie Harder’s blog.

The explanation of the WSUS issue is a tad confusing, but it revolves around a WDS update from February that was an optional update that only applied to people who already had WDS installed. So far, so good. Then last Tuesday, Microsoft revised that same update package to be applicable (but still optional) for all XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1+ systems. Unfortunately, WSUS users who did not have WDS installed found that they got this “optional” update automatically, because WSUS is set by default to automatically approve update revisions. Confused yet? I sure am.

Harder apologized for the error and posted instructions on how to remove WDS, which adds fast hard drive searching to the Windows desktop at the cost of RAM and CPU resources. For the time being, the distribution of WDS through WSUS has been suspended completely, so the only way to get it is by going to the Microsoft Download Center and installing it manually. Harder added that Microsoft is “working on improving our internal publishing processes to ensure this does not happen again in the future.”

As for the desktop users who experienced unexpected reboots when they thought they had set Windows Update to install manually, the culprit may have been Microsoft’s own OneCare. According to the product team, Microsoft OneCare automatically changes the Automatic Update settings to automatically download and install. This behavior is briefly alluded to in the first dialog box of the OneCare installation screen, but many customers were unaware that installing OneCare would change these settings.

Can you say “OPPS’ i wonder how many of them decided to go to another platform!!

Display the Date on the Menubar

Paul

macdateinmenubar.pngMac OS X only: If you don’t want to install a whole other piece of software to see today’s date in your menubar, you can add it manually in System Preferences. It’s not an obvious checkbox or dropdown, so bear with me. After the jump, the step by step.

  1. In System Preferences, open International and go to the Formats tab.
  2. Next to Dates, click the Customize button. Arrange your date in the format you want to appear on your menubar. Use the down arrows on each element to choose between formats (January, Jan, 01, 1, etc.) I chose [Oct 29], as shown.customizedate.png
  3. Now, select the entire date format and copy it to your clipboard (Cmd+A, Cmd+C). Hit OK.
  4. Hit the Customize button next to Times. Choose the “Medium” format.
  5. Paste the date format on your clipboard next to the time format, and hit OK. You’re done!

Note that the day of the week (like “Mon”) will appear next to your date and time by default. To turn that off, in System Preferences, go to Date and Time, and uncheck “Show the day of the week.” Thanks, Snowmoon!

Easily add the date to the menubar [macosxhints.com]
Now you can add date without adding another software!!

More Color Scheme Control with Agave

Paul

agave_screen3.png
Linux only: Webapps like colr.org are great for exploring color theme ideas, but some users might require a little more fine-tuning. Enter Agave, a program for GNOME-based Linux systems that gives you more than enough color information to plan your web site, desktop theme or design projects. Choose from standard palettes, use a Photoshop-like selection tool to grab any color on your screen or manually set color, saturation and brightness levels to save in a list of favorites. Agave is a free download for Linux systems only, available as a source download and in many standard repositories.

Agave [via FOSSwire]

Nice little program for linux, I’ll have to try it out on Kubuntu and see how well it works!!

Hulu Launches Private Beta, Makes Very Good First Impressions

Paul

Last March NBC Universal and News Corporation announced a joint venture that we initially thought would result in a direct competitor to YouTube. As details emerged, it became clear that the two media conglomerates were not planning a video sharing website for user generated content but rather an online distribution channel for premium video content, including TV shows, movies, and short clips.

In the months following the companies’ initial press release, we gave the joint venture a lot of grief for failing to pick a name for the project, eventually settling on a name – Hulu – that meant “cease” and “desist” in Swahili, copying Google’s mission statement, and receiving not the greatest vote of confidence from NBC Universal’s own chief digital officer.

Behind all of this criticism was a high degree of doubt that NBC and News Corp. were ever going to get Hulu out the door before the joint venture became irrelevant. In September, NBC had even announced a video downloading service that appeared to cannibalize its own joint venture with News Corp. However, this past week Hulu confirmed that it would indeed hit its self-imposed October deadline by launching in private beta on Monday, October 29th. And this past Friday, CEO Jason Kilar and other Hulu representatives demonstrated the new service to us.

While we have not been able to try out the private beta ourselves yet, I was very impressed by the preview of Hulu’s interface and the bulk of its features. Before going into my thoughts about the website, however, I should get some of the many details about Hulu on the table, especially since it’s been months since the original announcement.

Hulu is still a joint venture exclusively between NBC Universal and News Corporation. It exists as a website through which users can stream a collection of TV shows, movies, and short clips on-demand for free without any limits on how many times you can view each video. Hulu also exists as a distribution network of premium content for several partner websites – AOL, MSN, MySpace, Comcast, and Yahoo – that will display Hulu’s videos for free but in their own branded players. In addition to these partnerships, users themselves form a viral distribution network of sorts since Hulu allows its videos to be embedded in any website and shared via email. Hulu makes money in all cases from advertising, which it displays in and around the videos it serves. I’ll go more into the details of embedding and advertising later on.

The only problem that I see is that you can’t expand the picture it’s in a window with other stuff!!