Andy Ramblings

OK, in the techy world of beta testing. Microsoft announced that it was letting loose the next Version of Windows, names imaginatively Windows 7.  Better than giving it a name like vista, which quite frankly was daft. Anyway, MS announced that they will be releasing Beta 1 of Windows 7 at 20:00GMT to the world, but they said that they would only allow 2.5million CD keys. So, yours truly was there, waiting for the server gates to open, so that I could get a CD Key. Wow, were Microsoft so unprepared?!

Firstly by saying that they would only allow 2.5 million keys, they were bound to get a rush on their servers. SO, what happens? yep the party is over.

Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta. We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the beta, and I’ll be posting here again soon once the beta goes live. Stay tuned! We are excited that you are excited!
Source

 

I know, this may sound silly, but why didn't MS predict this? It might have been a good idea to use Torrents, rather than try and have 2.5 million users trying to download from a server farm, But that's Micorsoft for you. Torrents for them always = bad stuff. But it is the most efficient way to send a high volume of very large files.

The 32Bit version downloads as a 2.5G file, the 64bit version runs at 3.2GB file. Yep, Torrents are a lot quicker.

Now need to hang around to get that CD Key!

Update: Website to download a beta copy of windows 7 is open again.. find it here. You will be able to download both the 64bit and 32 bit versions and their CD keys.

 

Well, not really, I personally believe that it's the spawn of the devil, it's the worst thing that has ever ever come out from the Microsoft office stable. There is a fine art in how to do one, the video below, shows you many how not too's. I would say about 99% of the ones that I have seen have left me pretty darn close to comatose.

I will leave you to chuckle away at the video below....

Life After Death by PowerPoint

 

 

 

Yep, a very short review on Vista. Not that I have bought it or anything, or that I have it on my main PC. I have a copy as I was testing it. So the copy I have will run out sometime in June. Even by then, I don't think I'll be getting it.

You may have noticed TV/Newspaper/Poster ads that go on about the WOW that people will will say when they first see/use it for the first time. I certainly didn't say that when I first saw it. It was more wow crap! Oh you want to see some of those ads?

Here's some from Waterloo Station London: (source)

Bleedin' dull you have to agree.

One of the much vaunted features is the parental control. So I had a look and well, it was kinda funny and you would wonder who was involved in the request. Check out the image...

Rather amusing don't you think?

Anyway, if you do decide to take the jump to Vista, my suggestion is, don't, well not now anyway, I would wait till the first service pack is out. Otherwise stay with your XP.
If your a MAC user and have one of those INTEL based ones, I'm sure Vista will work on that in the not too distant future with Bootcamp 2.

If you want more info on Vista clicky here.

So, yesterday was the launch of the latest version of windows. Vista is now with us, and as far as I'm concerned, I've been using it for a while as I got a beta version (test version) and am not 100% impressed with it. But I'll let you watch Bill Gates talking to John Stewart from the daily show.
Say no more, No wonder it's so confusing! Bill obviously doesn't know what simplicity is.

Ok folks, Spammers and their likes have a tendency to try and get you to read e-mails. Some of you may or may not have noticed that there has been a change it the types of spam you are getting. The latest ones will try and convince you that they have some Good/oh My God terrible news about the storms that we have had over here in Europe over the past week, No this is not a weather report.

SO,  What is Small.Dam?

During the last 48hrs virus writers have been taking advantage of the winter storms in Europe to launch a new wave of attacks on computers around the globe.

This particular attack trys to get the user to "execute" a malicious file attached to an email that contains a Trojan horse.

The email and its attachment pose as information about the dreadful weather that Europe has currently been experiencing.

(Something I can personally vouch for as a roofing contractor has only just left my house after replacing tiles blown off in the strong winds!)

The Trojan is being distributed in emails with messages subjects like:

- 230 dead as storm batters Europe.
- British Muslims Genocide
- Naked teens attack home director.
- A killer at 11, he's free at 21 and kill again!
- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel

The email will have an attachment  that contains the Small.DAM Trojan.

The attachments may contain one of the following filenames:

- Full Clip.exe
- Full Story.exe
- Read More.exe
- Video.exe

Source

Basically, If you didn't ask for e-mails about the weather in Europe, it's most likely crap.
Obviously, below, there is more info on what the trojan does, read only if you want info on it. Read More

Not being a fan of Tagging and have normally ignored many, but as it's Christmas The New Year and as it was Davide Simonetti's  Birthday, I thought well  Ok, this once, I'll do it. They will be brief as I'm not at home, am in Brussels and may have a few beers as I type....

"What are the seven best things you did this past year?"

Well, 7 of the best things? Not too hard then.. Here goes.

1: Finally getting of the steroids that I've been on for the past 29 years,  They were beginning to cause, well, not beginning, they had been for a few years, causing a lot of havoc with everything else but what they were been taken for. Good riddance to them!

2: Very recently, seeing England loose the Ashes so spectacularly that it but a full stop on all this cricket stuff  and that the English team of 2005 didn't actually win because they played well, but that they had had a pact with the weather.

3: Seeing Bush loose power in such a democratic way! Now too see him go back to his old job of Village idiot, hopefully he will bring along his pet dog with him.

4: Building up new commercial websites, and well, this is still ongoing, but hopefully to make something more with it.

[After a pause of a few days Internet techie problem, parties and evenings out]

5:Seeing Bush get a serious bashing in the US Mid-terms, Not that I think that much is going to change, at least it' gotten rid of that smog look of his face, oh and a certain Rummy has gone. Hoping to see him ride into the sunset with his poodle and a huge boot out the backside.

6: Seeing Blair the Magnificent start his slow, ( wish it was faster) decline, and seeing him dig his political grave live on TV. I don't think many people believe a word he says any more. Just wish the guy would not keep trying to save himself, but his party.

7: Well, it has been a long year, many events have happened, many people have gone, so good riddance, some, well you would have liked them to have stayed a little longer, but you know in yourself, that time moves on, and we are all left with the good memories of those. For me, as this is about me, I'm glad to have to have made it to the end of this year in one piece. Ok, I have plenty of spare parts, but that's different.

So now to tag a few other people to see what they have to say about their 2006 seven best moments, So, in no particular order.
Keith, Zoe at MBIAT,Karelian Blonde, Guyana Gyal, Anna at That's the way life is, and anyone who would like to share

So reader(s) as 2006 comes to a close, how was it for you? I hope that you like the new theme, it's still being worked on, but I'm sure you will agree with me, that it is a lot faster.
Happy New year, Bonne année, ? ????? ?????, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar, Nuovo anno felice Lyckligt nytt år and for everyone have a great Hogmanay!! Drink lots and be safe.( I can't vouch for the correctness of the translations)

Well, I've been rebuilding my PC yet again. It's a chore that I don't enjoy as I have hundreds of programs to re-install, some need configuring and well, some just don't get put back on. So it's a chance to do some early spring cleaning of a PC.
During this task, and over the years, I have found methods of making this chore a tad easier, being a computer 'geek' to some people, to me, I just like the things, and am constantly amazed at the speed of change. I used to be able to keep up, but I can't now, the turnaround cycle of upgrades and new technologies has gone from 18 months down to almost 3 months. I can't see any sane mortal keeping apace of that, unless they are Ubergeeks. Not me then

So, those tips?
Well, having a good backup is always a good idea, when I say backup, I don't just mean your e-mails, programs files and the likes, I mean total backup nothing less. My tool of choice for this is Acronis True Image. What True Image does, is take a snapshot of your harddrive, so that you have a full copy of all the contents of what you had safely stored away.
So, with that, I rebuild windows XP, the true image comes in use only to recover all the documents & settings files, these hold all the setting of all the files I have to re-install... (I'm going geeky aren't I?)
Anyway, as I said, it helps, but you still need to re-install all the apps, so that windows knows that they are there.
If you are using Open Source apps, Firefox and the likes, these don't need to be re-installed !!

Anyway, I'm still at it, installing, rebooting, installing rebooting.... Hopefully I should be finished soon......

Well, I'm sure most of you will know that Microsoft will be releasing their new fan dangled operating system called Vista. Ooooo!
Well, to make things easier for us consumers it has come out with a master plan, easy to understand plan, they have come out with 5 different versions.

• Windows Vista Basic
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Enterprise (you won't be able to get that one)
  

Yep that was the master plan to make it easier for us consumers to decide. But if your confused they have done a little video so that you can understand the differences between them, well it's for the retailers, like the folks at PCworld.
Watch it here. Yep, we consumers will be darn confused.

In order to simplify the process even more, they, have come up with master plan B, this is those fandangled logos, you know the ones that at the moment say, certified to work with Windows XP? Yep, they have the same for windows Vista, but they have been clever, yep, in that ultimate quest to make sure that they don't confuse us consumers, they have come with not one logo but two! And here they are...