Have Laptop Will Travel

WinXP SP3 can slow Vista adoption

With the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, there is speculation that it will further slow down the public’s adoption of Microsoft’s new Windows Vista.

The new Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 was released last Feb. 19 without much fanfare, maybe as a way to not really give too much of the public’s attention to XP at this point when the company is still trying to sell the advantages of upgrading to the Vista OS. The problem is that with SP3, XP has become more stable and reliable and with a larger installed base, this will make it doubly hard for Microsoft to encourage people to go with vista, which is still considered as having many quirks and instabilities. SP3’s introduction has basically brought a Catch 22 situation for Microsoft. And the company’s decision to stop supporting XP in the near future will only further alienate its customers.

New Firefox 3 beta addresses memory leaks

Firefox 3 Beta 3 was released a few days ago. Developers and testers of the new version of Firefox have complained about the memory leaks that have plagued Beta 2. The new version has attempted to plug in the said leaks. To date, about 350 memory leaks were plugged.

In total, about 1300 changes were made to the browser, addressing issues in security, bug fixes, performance improvement as well as changes in the user interface. But security has been the main focus of this particular beta release. For example, a user can now click on a site’s icon in order to find out if the connection if safe and protected from eavesdropping. There is also a new malware protection module that alerts users if they visit a site that installs malware or perform other malicious processes.

Additional features also include a download manager and a tagging function.

Those who want to actually check it out can download the software at this address.

Apple Releases security update for Mac OS

Mac laptop users, take note. Apple has recently released a major security update that aims to patch at least 41 vulnerabilities that affect Mac operating system.

The new update — Security Update 2007 – 009 — corrects multiple critical exploits that could let hackers take control of Mac OS X machines (both Tiger and Leopard).

A separate security update was also made available to patch an information disclosure hole in Safari 3 for Windows Beta.

Based on an advisory released by Apple, the drive-by code execution holes are plugged in such utilities/ applications as Address Book, CFNetwork, ColorSync and CUPS. Other holes plugged are those from Core Foundation, Desktop Services, iChat, Launch Services, Mail, Perl, Python, Quick Look, Ruby, Safari (Mac OS X) and Safari RSS.

ZoneAlarm Spyware Free for just one day!

Here’s something that you should take advantage of if you read this early enough. ZoneAlarm will be offering its Anti Spyware suite for FREE but only for Tuesday. This software usually retails for $29.95.

It should be noted that this free version is not the full featured ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. But even with that limitation it still contains its highly effective OSFirewall as well as the usual spyware detection and removal, blocking of suspected spy sites and a year’s worth of free updates.

If you want to get the free software just go to this link before 7 AM PST, November 14.

Windows Validation error irks PC users

One of my biggest beefs about the last two generations of the Windows operating system is the very annoying Windows Genuine Advantage carousel ride that all users have to go through periodically. It is irritating that a person who has legitimately bought a piece of software will regularly have to be made to feel like a criminal just to assuage the mind of Microsoft that they are not being duped. So much for giving the customer the best experience possible.

Last August 24, the Windows Genuine Advantage gave Microsoft a big headache when an error in processing validations erroneously tagged legitimate Windows owners as using pirated software. Microsoft’s help line were inundated with calls from irate customers and forums were flooded with messages that came short of calling for a lynch mob in front of the Microsoft Campus.

Microsoft claimed that the problem was immediately fixed and that only 12,000 systems were affected by the problem. But whether it is 12,000 or 12,000,000, the fact still remains that Windows Genuine Advantage sucks. Microsoft has to rethink of a better, more customer friendly way of proving the legitimacy of its software — or even scrapping that process altogether. It’s not like Microsoft is going bankrupt, right?