Technical, Business and Product News from the Modern Computer World... Updated Once Per Month

Modern PC News for the Week Ending Nov 30, 2003

Windows Longhorn Beta in Summer 2004, Release in 2006!
Compaq Enters the Gaming Arena
How to Undo a Windows 2000 / 2003 Group Policy Lockout
Hewlett-Packard To Enter TV market
Having Trouble Finding a Good Kazaa
Next "Windows Update" Will Patch ALL Microsoft Products
Sony Sets Holiday Marketing Push for PlayStation
MS Preps Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6.05
SUN Announces AMD Opteron Server, Linux Sale
Novel Buys SuSE Linux
Windows Longhorn to 'Sparkle' With New Developer Tool
Microsoft Music Store to Debut Next Year
Free (or cheap) Training on All Non-Development/Server Products From Microsoft

BetaNews.com | Windows Longhorn Beta in Summer 2004, Release in 2006!

Potential final release dates for Longhorn were not discussed at PDC 2003, but current timelines place the operating system's likely launch in 2006. "It's very clear we're at the very beginning of this process," said Gates.

A special Longhorn preview -- build 4051 -- was distributed to PDC attendees to tide developers over until a Beta 1 release in summer 2004...

WinFS, first uncovered in leaked alpha builds of Longhorn, was demoed in great detail at PDC 2003. Microsoft clarified to developers the new Windows storage system that sits atop NTFS and utilizes a SQL database to store metadata on files. The goal of WinFS is to give a Windows user more flexibility when searching for and displaying content on their PC...

PCMag.com | Compaq Enters the Gaming Arena
By Konstantinos Karagiannis

The Compaq X09 Gaming PC hits the market today, and it's making waves—literally.

Street price: US$3980
Specs: 3.2-GHz Pentium 4, 1GB 400-MHz DDR SDRAM, two 120GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID 0), 8X DVD+RW drive, 16X DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 256MB nVidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, 17-inch LCD monitor, Windows XP Professional

...We wish we could rave about the LCD panel, but it's analog, and noticeably so. When viewing standard 2-D images and text, the display just is not as sharp as the digital units branded by Dell or the NEC monitors offered by such vendors as Alienware. Response time is fast, though, at 25 ms, which is good for both gaming and video.

The case design lets you plug in USB and FireWire peripherals via a top door—excellent for floor placement of the tower. There's even a memory card reader in the front that supports SmartMedia, CompactFlash I and II, MMC/SD, and Memory Stick.

Dollar for dollar, you do seem to get a bit more with the Compaq X09 than with a high-end boutique system from, say, VoodooPC. Yet comparable Alienware and Dell gaming machines are actually $300 or so cheaper and include better LCD monitors. If you're looking to walk home today with some gaming power, though, CompUSA now has a way for you to do so. Just consider opting for a different LCD monitor and maybe adding to the year of parts and labor coverage before you hit the checkout line.

Commodore.ca | How to Undo a Window 2000 / 2003Group Policy Lockout

Well, if you have accidentally locked yourself out of a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Server Group Policy, don't worry, you can easily undo it!

I have been using Windows 200x in production environments since 1998 and up until November 2003 never made the obvious mistake of going into the SECURITY TAB of a Group Policy, clicking ENTERPRISE ADMINS, FULL CONTROL, DENY... note very bright. I should have simply clicked DENY for APPLY GROUP POLICY. I knew I was stuck as soon as I clicked OK.

Click HERE for the easy process to un-hoop yourself.

ZDNet.com | Hewlett-Packard To Enter TV market
By Michael Kanellos

Dell and Gateway have begun to sell televisions, and Hewlett-Packard is looking at doing the same.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based computing giant is scrutinizing the market for liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions, plasma televisions and projection screen televisions, Jim McDonnell, vice president of marketing and sales for HP's Personal Systems Group, said in an interview at Comdex on Monday.

"For us, it is a market that is exciting," McDonnell said.

The move into fancy televisions is possible largely because HP currently sells products featuring the same basic underlying technology. LCD televisions are quite similar to LCD monitors, James Chu, CEO of ViewSonic, said in a separate interview. The video circuitry is a little different, and LCD TVs are generally more rectangular than monitors, but those are the main differences...

TechTV.com | Having Trouble Finding a Good KaZaA
By Kevin Rose

My favorite KaZaA client, KaZaA Lite, the K++ edition, was recently updated with all new privacy features to keep away prying eyes.

Download KaZaA Kite K++ KaZaA Lite K++ Edition KaZaA Lite K++ Edition Features

Just look at this partial feature list and you'll see why I like it.

Integrated anti-RIAA firewall
Port scan blocker (KaZaA ports)
No spyware, adware, pop-ups, or banner ads.
No bitrate limits for MP3 files.
Multisource downloads have a maximum of 40 simultaneous sources.
Finds sources for a download once every minute instead of every 10 minutes.
Uploaders can't cut in line anymore regardless of their participation level. This improves the number of completed uploads and takes away the advantage that cheaters have.
Shared files are scanned every five minutes instead of every minute to save system resources.

BetaNews.com | Next "Windows Update" Will Patch ALL Microsoft Products
By David Worthington and Nate Mook

...Windows Update 5.0 is set to enter into testing before the end of this year and extends patching capabilities to the full monty of Microsoft products including Office, SQL Server, Exchange, as well as Windows...

Reuters.com | Sony Sets Holiday Marketing Push for PlayStation

Sony Corp's North American unit on Monday unveiled a marketing campaign, including a $1 million giveaway sweepstakes, aimed at bolstering sales of its PlayStation 2 computer game console, which is entering its fourth holiday sales season.

Sony said it will tap significantly into its annual $250 million marketing budget, as the Japanese electronics and entertainment company joins rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. in trying to shake any signs of age off the powerful game consoles...

BetaNews.com | MS Preps Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6.05
By David Worthington and Nate Mook

...Service Pack 2 is slated to modify numerous security settings in Windows XP, such as enabling Internet Connection Firewall by default and disabling the Messenger service that has plagued users with unwanted spam. The automatic download of critical patches will be enabled to ensure users systems' are protected from the latest malicious code to spawn from the depths of the Internet.

Windows will also receive a new version of Internet Explorer, expected to number 6.05. "SP2 will include an update to IE that adds pop-up blocking," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to BetaNews...

...The Windows Installer Program 3.0 and Software Update Services 2.0 are also currently undergoing development and testing...

CNET.com | SUN Announces AMD Opteron Server, Linux Sale

Sun Microsystems introduced Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron into its server family and announced a deal in China that's expected to boost its Linux desktop software.

As expected, Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy on Monday showed off two servers that use the processor during a keynote speech at the Comdex trade show here, becoming the second major company to adopt the chip. IBM already has announced Opteron servers, but its model at present is intended only for the narrower high-performance technical computing markets.

BetaNews.com | Novel Buys SuSE Linux
By David Worthington

...The embattled software maker has placed its eggs squarely in the Linux basket, having announced its acquisition of the popular German Linux vendor SuSE this past Tuesday and the general availability of Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise 2 earlier this week.

Buying SuSE enables Novell to offer a full array of Linux products and services from enterprise servers to the desktop. It also makes Novell the sole billion-dollar Linux distributor with a presence felt around the globe.

...Novell's primary message being conveyed is that Red Carpet Enterprise 2 simplifies and automates the management and adoption of software designed for Linux all while keeping costs in check. More specifically, Red Carpet Enterprise provides: package distribution and installation, full dependency resolution, rollback and repairs capabilities, inventories, as well as reports. Caching servers are also used to transfer packages across poor network connections more effectively.

Customers can purchase Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise 2 at a cost of $200 USD per managed system. More information is available at Red Carpet Enterprise's official product Web site, and through Novell's Resource Management page.

BetaNews.com | Windows Longhorn to 'Sparkle' With New Developer Tool
By David Worthington

According to reports, Microsoft is busy sculpting the form of a potential Flash competitor code-named "Sparkle." Word has it that Redmond's tool will serve as a developer's front-end to build applications upon Longhorn's next generation Avalon graphics subsystem.

Avalon, which forms the roots for Microsoft's new Aero user experience, serves as the engine for Longhorn's user interface including the display of documents and rich media. A new markup language that finds its foundation in XML -- dubbed XAML -- will be utilized to design Avalon interfaces...

Sparkle is intended to automate the coding of XAML-based applications, according to sources. Speculation aside, however, there is not much else known about Microsoft's plans for XAML development...

CNET.com | Microsoft Music Store to Debut Next Year

Microsoft confirms plans that it will launch its own music download store, putting it on the path to direct competition with Apple's iTunes and a growing list of rival digital song stores.

Commodore.ca | Free (cheap) Training on All Non-Development/Server Products From Microsoft

A little known change to Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing deal is that your company can order very high quality web (or not) based training CD's directly from MS without additional charge. The only fee is the $40 for the disks... no license fees at all.

I think Software Assurance is a chunk, so I don't sell it to my clients. As such my client do not gain access to the training for free but they can (and do) purchase it via Microsoft's Open License program for a very reasonable CDN$76 per seat. No, you do not need to buy a training seat for everyone in your company... just the people who will use the training. The training kit gets updated four times per year and your $76 covers 1 year of upgrades.

Check out the huge pile of software it covers:

Access 2002 Inside Out, Advanced Training for Microsoft Word 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Access 2002, Core Training for Microsoft FrontPage® 2002, Core Training for Microsoft PowerPoint® 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Visio® 2002, Standard Microsoft FrontPage 2002, Inside Out Visio 2002 Inside Out, Microsoft Outlook® 2002, Outlook 2002 Inside Out, Core Training for Microsoft FrontPage 2000, Running Microsoft FrontPage 2000

Core Training for Microsoft Project 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Project Professional 2002, Microsoft Project Version 2002 Inside Out

Core Training for Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Core Training for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Core Training for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Core Training for Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office 2003 Inside Out, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out

Microsoft Office XP Core Training for Microsoft Office XP, Creating Dynamic Presentations with Streaming Media, Microsoft Office XP Inside Out, Taming the Information Tsunami What's New: Microsoft Office 97 to Office XP, What's New: Microsoft Office 2000 to Office XP, Microsoft Office XP Plus Advanced Training for Microsoft Excel 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Excel 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Project 2002, Core Training for Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel Version 2002, Inside Out Microsoft Project Version 2002, Inside Out Microsoft Word Version 2002 Inside Out, Advanced Microsoft Office XP, Accessing and Analyzing Data with Microsoft Excel, Advanced Training for Microsoft Access 2002 Advanced Training for Microsoft Excel 2002, Advanced Training for Microsoft Outlook 2002 Advanced Training for Microsoft Word 2002

Microsoft Office 2000 Core Training for Microsoft Excel 2000, Core Training for Microsoft Outlook 2000, Core Training for Microsoft Word 2000, Running Microsoft Excel 2000, Running Microsoft Outlook 2000, Running Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Office 2000 Plus, Core Training for Microsoft Access 2000, Core Training for Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, Running Microsoft Access 2000, Running Microsoft PowerPoint 2000

Core Training for Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, What's New: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional

Core Training for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

Core Training for Tablet PC Quick Reference

Coming Soon Titles (Subject to Change)
Advanced Microsoft Office 2003 Advanced Training for Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Advanced Training for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Advanced Training for Microsoft Office Word 2003

Communicate and Manage with Microsoft Office 2003 Core Training for Microsoft Access 2003 Core Training for Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Core Training for Microsoft Project 2003

Microsoft Office 2003 Advanced Reference Introducing Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Track Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Inside Out Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Inside Out Microsoft Office Word 2003 Inside Out

Power Microsoft Office Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling with Microsoft Office Excel Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out

and more.

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