Windows 7 RC Expiration Notice
For those of you who got the Windows 7 Release Canidate last year it is now time to move on. In roughly 14 hours (from the time of this post), your RC license will expire and your computer will blow up. Ok it won’t really blow up and to be honest I don’t really know what will happen. I take it as a guess that you will be given a nice big message saying you cannot use your machine until you purchase a valid license for Windows 7.
It seems as if everyone had totally forgotten about D-Day for the Windows 7 RC. Everyone except for Microsoft.
Open Source
It’s a well known fact that Microsoft has dominated the workplace, no one will dispute that. Now a not so well known fact is that all the tools you use on a daily basis actuallyhave a free alternative if you know where to look. This article is not going to pit Microsoft against open source vendors but rather enlighten you to your options.
A couple of questions to get you thinking:
This is my first post on Tx Daily and I would like to start off with something simple. Keyboard shortcuts will increase the speed at which you get things done on your computer thereby improving your productivity. Here is a keyboard shortcuts tutorial video from cnet.com.
Other than the video, here are some more shortcuts: (more…)
Google Chromium OS
We have been following the stories and tales behind the Google Chrome OS for a while now waiting for something interesting to come out the wood work. The moment has now come with Google announcing that the project will be made open source as Chromium OS, much like the open source version of Chrome known as, yes you guessed it, Chromium. (more…)
If you are a Apple Mac user then you will definitely know the frustration of getting a few drivers for your hardware that most likely is created by Windows users. This is very true when it comes to Vodacom 3G. The software provided by Vodacom for their 3G E220 HSDPA modem is faulty and just provides headaches.
Luckily Charl Norman has done a bit of digging around and found an update to the Mac Software. Basically with the old software it would either not work all together or it would just spontaneously disconnect you from the net, highly irritating! It apparently works brilliantly, has a much better interface and is available for download right here!
Vodafone 3G Mac Software - charlnorman.com
Thanks Charl.
Windows 7 Website Banner
That’s right, you will be able to get your hands on a legitimate copy of Windows 7 in just over a week. This highly anticipated release from Microsoft is set to change what the general population think of the software giant and hopefully put them on track for a lot of positive feedback (if what they have received is not a good sign already). So I thought I would give you a little bit more information about the product and how to get it.
Yes that is right, the money hungry giant is actually releasing software for free. Yes, as hard as that is to believe they have.
Microsoft Security Essentials
With the need for better computer security growing with every passing second the need for a stable and strong anti-virus grows as well. Microsoft knows this and have thus released a free anti-virus for their operating systems.
We wrote about EyeOS a while back and were quite excited to see what people would offer with this new cloud computing software. We have subsequently been contacted by Eye-OS.co.uk, a new start up so to speak. We immediately smashed some questions back at them to get more information of where they are at and where they are heading.
EyeOS Desktop
Monopoly City Streets
Monopoly has always been one of my favourites board games, I love the fact that you can rip off your closest friends and family every time they come to your street in the board game. Well now the board game just got a whole lot more intense.
So what’s the deal? Let me put it to you this way: Take one of the most popular board games around the world and one of the most popular street map systems currently, join them together and there you go; you have Monopoly City Streets. Yes you may have guessed it already, this board game will be using Google Street Maps as the board and Monopoly as the game which creates a whole new way to play board games.
WordPress Logo Red
A WordPress attack is underway which is targeting blogs running an older self-hosted versions of the WordPress software. Your WordPress blog is only vulnerable if you are running earlier versions and not the latest release of 2.8.4.
WordPress has officially stated that you must upgrade your blog to the latest version as the worm has no effect on the latest release. Apparently if you are infected you won’t really have much chance of fixing the issue and this will require you to export your posts via the built in exporter and then install a fresh copy of WordPress.
Symptons of the attack are funny additions to your WordPress “pretty” urls (look for “eval” and “base64_decode”) and also look if a new user that has been created, look for a username you do not recognise.
So if you have an older version of WordPress, upgrade now!
eyeOS new user creation
I have recently stumbled across this little gem of an application called eyeOS. This is a open source web browser based desktop following the concept of cloud computing, written mainly in PHP, XML and JavaScript. Basically this means it is “windows” in a web browser. Out the box it comes standard with 67 applications and system utilities. To name a few; an office equivalent, an email client, an internet browser, a calculator, a facility for internal messages, a calendar and many more applications you would expect on an Operation System.
Looking to get more applications for your eyeOS? No problem, head on over to the eyeOS Applications and have a browse through their vast list of applications. There are sure to be some applications that will grab your fancy.
Still not satisfied with the list of applications available to you? Why not develop your own? Have a look at eyeDesigner for making your own apps.
I am quite delighted to announce that I have found an Anti Virus package that I am 99% happy with!
The software goes by the name of G Data. I recently installed the 2010 version on my personal computer at home for reviewing purposes. Initially the installation is a bit of a lengthy process, taking an odd 30mins or so. On top of that it had to download about 60mb of virus definitions and updates. To justify this it does run a dual engine virus protection module, which means you have two different monitoring modules keeping your PC safe with both these engines needed to be updated. I was also pleased that there were no tedious registration forms and activation processes, I was simply asked to enter a email address and a desired password, that’s it.
After installation I can with all honesty say that I did not have any hassles at all. I have a network setup of 5 PCs at home, one of them running as a remote desktop only. When sharing files on my PC I did not encounter any firewall or permission problems, there were also no issues regarding networking in any of the games I tried. It even runs on the Windows 7 RC without any hassles. G Data just quietly runs in the background doing its job, or did it?
So it is official, there will be a Warcraft movie. Now for those people who have played the legendary game you will be asking many questions but I am sure you will be very excited. This is how official it is.
World of Warcraft Movie
Sam Raimi, the man who directed Spiderman and is actually finishing Spiderman 4, has been signed on as the director of the movie and will start on it as soon as he is finished with Spiderman 4.
There is a huge debate going on here at the Tx Daily offices about whether the movie will be animated or have real actors with a whole lof of CGI. We are hoping that it is animated especially looking at the World of Warcraft intro movies.
Another chat about the movie also led to some questions on what the actual story line of the movie would be, we are leaning towards the Alliance being dubbed the good guys and the Horde being dubbed the baddies of the movie.
Nothing official for release dates and cast have been released yet.
Google Chrome OS
I am sure you have heard of the latest product news to come from Google, that being the Google Chrome OS. If you have not heard, the Google Chrome OS is initially destined for Netbooks and the likes because of it lightweight architecture.
However the aim of the new OS to the market will be simple, Speed, simplicity and security, so there is no doubt that Google will be aiming to bring a totally new operating system that will compete on all levels including using it on powerful desktop machines.
What is even more important about the OS is the security issue. Linus Upson, Google’s Engineering Director, has promised the company is “Completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”. This sounds really great but with anything out there when someone wants to get into something they inevitably will especially when it is open-source and the popularity increases.
Never the less I am pretty excited to get my hands on the first Chrome OS powered netbook and see how easily my web addiction can be eased.
Windows vs Linux
What exactly would your thoughts be if I told you that Microsoft contributed 20, 000 lines of code towards the Linux Kernel? Mine would be Microsoft are peppering Linux for a purchase.
Don’t worry Linux is not going to be a Microsoft product anytime soon, allow me to explain what has happened. The code Microsoft is releasing isn’t to help Linux compete better with Microsoft. The drivers are really geared at making Windows a better host for Linux.
“The Linux device drivers we are releasing are designed so Linux can run in enlightened mode, giving it the same optimized synthetic devices as a Windows virtual machine running on top of Hyper-V,” Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft’s Open Source Technology Center, said in a statement. “Without this driver code, Linux can run on top of Windows, but without the same high performance levels.”
Microsoft will be releasing three drivers for Linux licensed under the GPL that governs Linux.
Microsoft has released open-source code in the past, but licenses other than the GPL have been favoured by Microsoft. That said, the GPL is the way into the Linux kernel and Microsoft wants this code in Linux.
Ok, so it seems the reason Microsoft added code to Linux is just to make their hosting environments run Linux better. I can’t help but feel there has to be something more to this? Why add code to your oppositions OS?
Is this a foot in the door for Microsoft to try and obtain Linux?
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