[ad#ad2-left]After seeing all this happened I thought I would help people out on how to fix it. This seems to be a DRM problem according to some reports. Others are thinking it is the Securerom. Anyways the problem seems to be with the Rockstar Social Club and not to log in to that. That will fix the problem, you will at least be able to play the single player game. This is a temporary fix till the developers fix in the update. This will also fix the Steam version of the game.
Beginning Thursday Dec. 4th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.
[Via Technet]
[ad#ad2-right]Yes you heard right, you can get into the Beta of Vista SP2 and not have to wait till April. Some things to remember:
Some of the changes that they are going to incorporate into Sp2 are support for new types of hardware and emerging standards that will grow in importance in the coming months. The complete list of changes can be found here. I will be testing this out sometime this weekend to give it a full thorough check out. I will give a report later on this month possibly first part on January I would like to give it a complete test. To test it out yourself, check out this link for directions on how to download it.
An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP
The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.
This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.
On a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you install a third-party Web browser. You set the third-party Web browser as the default Web browser. Then, you run the Connect to the Internet Wizard. However, if you select the Browse the Internet now option, Windows Internet Explorer starts instead of the third-party Web browser that you set as the default Web browser.
[ad#ad2-right]This seems to be not so important. All of these are not really security related but it does surprise me that Microsoft wanted to release these out of Cycle. If your planning on using your Vista laptop during the holidays you might want to update your vista machine before you go. I don’t think there is going to be any major issues with this but if there is, you can always remove these updates later.
Technorati released today they are going to Lay off 6 people and I will quote:
[ad#ad2-left-1]
Unfortunately, this means sacrifices. Technorati’s management team members are taking pay cuts ranging from 15-25% and employees are taking 10% cut. This also includes the reallocation of staff. We’re laying off six employees today – including two executives — and there are two additional departures we won’t replace. These are high performers who have worked long hours to get us where we are now. They’re also friends, and we’re very sad to see them go. We simply need a leaner and reconfigured mix to get us through 2009.
[via Technorati Weblog]
They will also be taking pay cuts all through the company. So the recession is hitting them also. I am sure CEO Richard Jalichandra has the company interest in mind. According to Techchunch, they have added these recent layoffs ticker. You can also search my blog for other layoffs that have happened or will happen.
After a full week of playing around with this USB wireless, I wanted to talk about it. So let’s break it down into pieces.
After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along. I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed. When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed. All these test were done at
The Percentages over the results are showing you just what my signal strength was when I was doing the test. Two of the 4 were traveling on the highway and the other two were stationary. I also know that my speed will vary along with signal strength, I know I have to be a mile or less from a tower to get 100%.
*Update* 12/21/08
[ad#cricket-1]In my other post I talk about why I didn’t get the speed I expected, but after I did the activation I went to normal Mobile Broadband speeds. I also now have been using the USB Modem for my main internet without any or much problems. I know I can’t play any major online games but I can at least have the internet with me were ever I go. As long as you stay in the coverage area, you should be in good shape. . Like I Said I’ve used it in my area for over a 1 month and with the small little problem, the speed has been really dependable and I haven’t had any major issue with connectivity. I’ve been using this modem as my main internet and have not seen any major internet and have not seen any of the cap come my way. I think they won’t mind to much as long as you don’t ABUSE the internet, for example don’t use it for bittorrent downloads and you should be fine!!
Update 12/24/2008
I also did travel with my laptop to another city, and I got to say it was really good and how it did when I went from one city to another. Check out the report here.
According to some post and forum talks around the the internet they are talking about the soft cap of 5 Gigabytes but that seems to not be so important right now. After all, they have to make money some how. I will update as necessary when I find anything else out.
update 1/01/09
I also did a video and uploaded it to youtube using the broadband connection. I had no problem uploading this video to Youtube. I’ve embedded it in this web page. See it on the bottom:
I also bought the [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Cricket modem[/intlink] and I absolutely love this modem because of the things you can do with it.
