Have Laptop Will Travel

WordPress 2.0.8 RC1

Originally posted on February 1, 2007 @ 7:30 pm

According to Mark Jaquith, development continues on WordPress 2.2 and 2.1.1, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about the 2.0.x users who haven’t upgraded to the latest 2.1 series.

As part of the ongoing commitment to support WordPress 2.0.x until 2010, Mark and the other WordPress development team members are readying the release of WordPress 2.0.8.

For those of you who are into bleeding edge software distributions, download WordPress 2.0.8 RC1 and kick the tires a bit and help be apart of testing of one of the best blogging and content management software packages available.

For my software geek friends and readers, here’s what to expect in WordPress 2.0.8 Release Candidate 1:

  • a security fix for wp_remote_fopen()
  • better compatibility with PHP 5.2
  • a fix for feed links when using a /%category%/ permalink structure
  • misc HTML validation fixes
  • misc obscure error fixes

I’m currently running WP 2.1 on Have Laptop Will Travel but still run 2.0.7 on some of my development blogs and sites while the kinks get worked out in the 2.1.x series.

Bad Behavior 2.0.10 Released

Originally posted on January 27, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

Heads up my blogging friends, Bad Behavior 2.0.10 has been released. It is a maintenance/bug fix release.

According to Michael Hampton, the creator of Bad Behavior, this is an optional upgrade for those of us already running version 2.0.9.

If you are running an older version, it’s highly recommended to update as soon as possible.

Also, for those of you using PHP 5.2.0 or later, this is a critical upgrade, so download it right away.

Wait! Don’t buy Windows Vista!

Originally posted on January 26, 2007 @ 9:46 am

Unless you’ve recently emerged from a coma, you know the consumer versions of Microsoft’s new Vista Operating System ship Tuesday.

Microsoft Vista

Over the next few weeks, NBA star LeBron James will try to convince you to move to Windows Vista as part of Microsoft’s massive ad campaign.

Microsoft’s new OS is the best Windows ever, just don’t buy it and here’s why.

“Just say no” to LeBron James and Windows Vista, at least for now.

USB PC Repair System

Originally posted on January 12, 2007 @ 12:01 am

The Daily Cup of Tech computer help site put together a USB-drive based collection of software that’ll help you fix up any ailing PC.

USB Thumb DriveSorry Mac users, this post is for Windows users only but feel free to let me know if there are similar utilities for Apple Macintosh users so I can help them too.

I know just enough about Macs to get into trouble, so any advise you have is very much welcome.

Ok, on with the show… all wrapped up into one convenient, 14.2MB zip file, the USB PC Repair System contains 37 fix-it programs, many of which I already use and have in my tool box but I figured this would be good to share with others.

Here are just a few of the programs in this USB PC repair system, complete with links:

The PC Repair System is a free download and contains 37 applications in all.

So how does it work?

  1. You extract the contents to any USB drive 32 MB or greater.
  2. Remove the USB drive from your system and plug it back in.
  3. You’re off and running!

Take a moment and check it out. You’ll be very happy with this package for sure.

Update: Apparently the site is getting hammered with heavy traffic on the download, so to help out, now you can download it from me:

I’m not sure how long I’ll have this available, so grab it while you can.

Microsoft Patches For January 2007

Originally posted on January 9, 2007 @ 10:50 am

Microsoft WindowsWell it’s upon us, Microsoft’s patch Tuesday.

Most users have their Windows machines set to automatically download updates as they become available.

For me, I like to do it manually so I can pick and choose what I want installed on my machines.

Be sure to grab the latest patches and updates from Microsoft to keep your Windows install running smooth and secure…well as secure as Microsoft will allow anyway.

So what can you expect from Microsoft’s Security updates this morning?

One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows.

  • The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. Some of these updates will require a restart.

Three Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office.

  • The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.

The basics of these very important updates: They fix two “critical” security flaws, one in Windows and another in the Outlook e-mail client and Exchange mail server.

Both vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to gain complete control over vulnerable PCs or servers running the Microsoft software.

Usually you can grab the updates from Microsoft around 10:00 AM PST but your mileage may very. I was able to get them a couple hours ago.

I hope Microsoft makes some good progress for a more secure Windows Operating System in 2007.

We shall see, it’s only nine days into the new year.