How to Install Windowx XP SP3 RTM TODAY!

. Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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In latest news Microsoft decided to delay XP Service Pack 3 due to incompatibility with it's point-of-sale app – Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS).
But not all hope getting the RTM SP3 yet! As I'm sure very few of my readers ever used Dynamics and so I just found a solution to help you all out!

Guys from Xatrix Security wound a way:

  • Download this file WindowsXPSP3Hack.cmd . Once you have downloaded the file, login as administrator and run the file by double clicking it. Wait for the Confirmation Message on screen.
  • The Above file adds a few entries to the Windows Registry that makes Microsoft think that you are a part of the Private beta program.
  • Check for new updates on Windows Update. You should now see Windows XP SP3 listed in the available updates.
  • Download and install it. Reboot whenever necessary.

Please note this hack is the exact way Microsoft expects its beta testers to try Windows XP SP3 out, so you don’t have to worry too much about Microsoft catching hold of you.

Kudos Guys!!

In Case the batch file will be taken offline here are it's contents:

How to bring distributed computing to masses?

. Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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Have you heard about world fastest super computer ? Who made it? Cray(CRAY), IBM (IBM), HP (HPQ) ??? NO

IT'S YOUR HOME PC! *

By itself, it barely play latest video game or maybe play High Definition video - not nearly enough to run DNA mapping for example.

BUT

Bring 1000, 100000 or a million of them together and what you get? A world fastest Super-Computer and for FREE !!!
For example enthusiasts supported Folding-at-Home project currently have almost 280,000 active CPUs bringing it's power equal to 1452 TFlop/s, almost THREE Times faster than the worlds fastest Super-Computer - IBM BlueGene/L installed at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) with a Linpack performance of now 478.2 TFlop/s

I think one of the questions we ought to ask ourselves, how come so little people contributed their "wasted cpu cycles" for such important project?
There has to be way to significantly boost those numbers!

Problem:

While project founders say the client uses only the "Idle" cycles - which is true, however there is a price for this "Free" computing power and it's name is Electricity consumption.
The fact is really simple - while your PC's CPU idling because you prefer to leave your office/pc always on, its power consumption, lets say on average is 150-180W or whole system (unless you running crazy raid setups and quad video cards), but under 100% load at all times this number could easily double or triple, especially if Folding@Home Client running on Video Card.

Solution:

As I can see it, contributing to such (not-profit) project should be considered a charity, and the fact your are donating thru your electrical company bill in end of each month, and thus as any charity contribution should be considered TAX Deductible (of course with limits set in law regulation amount of such deductions).
Not to hard to take average national electrical charge per kWatt, CPU/VGA Full usage overhead and you get a number in end of year, lets say in my VERY rough approximation about $300-400. Now, to be able to write off this amount from taxes should be plenty of motivation for MUCH more people to join and help.
Cost to project - $0, some costs to government, but then again , utility companies pay faxes too :)

Nothing more will motivate people than software on you pc will show a number of dollars you contributed this year so far.

* Or PlayStation 3

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding_at_home
http://folding.stanford.edu/
http://www.top500.org/lists/2007/11/highlights/top10

Are H-1Bs the Best and Brightest?

. Monday, April 28, 2008
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"The new report, entitled 'H-1Bs: Still Not the Best and the Brightest,' is authored by Dr. Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, and is online at http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back508.html. The analysis is based on the simple fact that in a market economy, if workers are indeed outstanding talents, they will be paid accordingly."

Sorry for Off-Topic, but since many of H-1B issues in the computer industry) not a huge one.
The issue is seriosly troubling , in how exacly this proffesor concluded that outstanding H-1B would be paid higher that their collegues??
Is he have any grasp on reality??

Friend of mine is in fact working as me in IT industry and he's a H-1N Visa holder, sponsored by his company. I can guarantee you this guy is HIGHLY qualified and experienced, in most times more than US citized collegues, however his paycheck is almost half of theirs.

Why is what? Certain places in world DO NOT have such developed economy and technology penetration, therefore such professional whom can't job in their own countries try to work in usa, in hopes for opportunities. However due to fact the company (visa holder) has to pay legal fees on behalf of this person, is not interested of raising his salary at all, regardless of his talents and the person is limited in his options. The facts are simple - there limited amount of companies who would hire a person which needs H-1B sponsorship.

So my friend have only 1 real choice - to get a green card and then find a job willing to pay market comparable salary, but then guess what : he falls out of Mr. Matloff statics.

Source

LSI buy's Hard Drive components business from Infinion

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LSI Corporation ((LSI)) announced today [April 28] that is finished purchase of the hard disk drive semiconductor business of Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/ NYSE: IFX) LSI is mostly knows for it retail and oem Raid controllers. LSI is quite a big player with up to 80% market share in some niche markets like SAS controllers. While Infineon targets several semiconductor markers like Automotive & Industrial and Communications , its best known for it's computer memory, now fully separated in to independent branch - Qimonda.

It appears either LSI decided to expand it's HD business or Infinion cutting down in current tough market situation for memory manufactures and trying to better focus

Source

LSI and the LSI logo design are trademarks or registered trademarks of LSI Corporation.

Finally DVB [Mobile TV] coming to US. Playing the Catch-up Game

. Thursday, April 24, 2008
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It's about freaking time! I'm freaking sick looking at Akihabara News and finding another new cellphone with DVB-H support making me green with envy.
Japan had mobile TV since April 2006 !! [Source]

For you who don't know what DVB is :
DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) is basicaly like having Dish/DirecTV but for your cellphone - means hundreds of TV channels, excellent to very good reception, and forget about the dreaded -BUFFERING. DVB technology is not IP based.

For More info about DVB-H and DVD-SH check wikipedia :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvb-h and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-SH

Source:
PRNewswire

Why IT deptartment not rushing to Vista

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Today in interview to AP in Belguim Steve Balmer said couple of thing, which really make me laugh !
First one was "most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.", "That's the statistical truth"
Second thing he mentioned is the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.

LOL

From his statements I understand that Consumer Joe goes to best buy and specificaly buys a Vista machine becouse he's apperently an expert and not afraid to use "new technology", not becouse he simply DON'T HAVE A CHOICE !!
A widely known fact, that even if some manufacturers still sell Windows XP / Linux Models, such model most likely never reach BestBuy shelfs anymore, and consumer faced with simple choice - if he wants a new pc - he'll have to buy vista.

Now, regarding why IT departments not rushing to upgrade: I have million and one reasons why not, and beeing lazy isn't one of them.
For starters most pc's in corporations are usualy have sub part hardware to run Vista at same level of performance as XP, driver support is still not polished enought, still tons of applications w/o support for Vista not even counting custom/in house developments.
Vista actually doesn't bring anything new for corporate user, since in companies people use applications, not operating system. OS's role is be as much as transperent as possible, and we all know how Vista terribly fails at that department...

I could go on and on, but such articles are over the net. I short, I don't think WE should invest LOTS of money, time and efford just to have SAME result in end, except to be able to "proudly" say "WE SWITCHED TO VISTA" :)))

Source:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5htzwpdi2SxPWz4ohZtpjmFeOjG5gD90881UO0

Why Tivoli Storage Manager Works For Enterprise

. Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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Dear visitors, today I have great honor to present a new Bored Sysadmin's blog Author - Pauly "SAN Man". With years of experience in IT industry and awesome sense on humor Pauly will be great addition to this blog.

For those of you in the industry with more than 50 servers and multiple tape drives, consider this read. TSM by IBM (IBM) may not be the easiest software in the industry, but it is the most robust and fully capable enterprise backup solution on the market today, in my humble, yet professional opinion.

For someone who has used Symantec(SYMC), Veritas, CA (CA), & HP (HPQ) Backup, making the transition to TSM was a pretty easy one for me. I have a pretty strong background with command line from my Cisco (CSCO) background making it that much easier to use. For those of you that don't have a strong yearning for command line and like the GUI, fear not; IBM does have an Integrated Solutions Console which only runs in Windows. For all of you strong command liners out there, TSM is a no brainer.

Running TSM on a platform that fits your line of business needs is just easy. You can choose so many flavors of OS including Windows, AIX, Linux, etc. There is an entire laundry list of compatible hard so it's pretty much a guarantee that TSM will attach to it. Although it never hurts to check: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManager.html

Whether it be a single tape drive library all the way up to hundreds of drives or silos, TSM is the way to go for industry's most tested and tried DR software. Using the storage pools for both on and off site backup only further enable your ability to not only rapidly recover small files from user error, but to recover from a disaster of epic proportions.

Just to give an example without giving away all of my secrets, I work for the State of North Dakota. Housed in Bismarck, we have our large data center where 95% of our hardware is located. The TSM servers, tape library, and storage pools sit across the Missouri River 10 miles away in another data center connected via 10Gbps fiber.

Of course you have to gauge these needs based on your geographic location. Here in North Dakota, we have to worry about tornadoes and on the even rarer occasion, a possible 100 year flood.

Every night our servers dump to the storage pools where the data is retained based on the polices set by the various state departments. The storage pools migrate to tape, then reduced to keeping 1 copy in the storage pool, 1 copy on-site tape, and 1 copy off-site tape. One of the great advantages about TSM is the incremental forever backup idea. You backup everything that has changed and if it never changes, it never gets copied to tape again saving space in storage pools and space on tape. In TSM you can Collocate your data on the same set of tapes making for even faster restores. IE: Yhe tapes for file & print servers are all located in the same general group of tapes.

Another great advantage of TSM is it's sheer security. If you don't have a copy of the database, a lost tape is completely useless to it's finder. There is no catalog information stored on the tapes, only raw data.

Of course this leads us to the 2 biggest disadvantages:

Guard your TSM database with your life. Have 3 copies of it AT ALL TIMES! If you loose your database, you don't restore, EVER!

Another huge disadvantage is the sheer administration fact. While TSM has many dedicated and automated tasks built in, it still takes a full time administrator. You can't expect to just push the TSM server into the corner and never touch it again. You must continually work at it, monitor it, etc.

Giving you a basic overview on TSM was indeed my pleasure today and if you have any questions, please email me: paschumacher@nd.gov Happy Blogging! Pauly "San Man"

Links:

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Google Gets Sued for Ad Program Fraud

. Tuesday, April 22, 2008
0 comments


Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP, the company who recently won a multi-million dollar settlement from Yahoo! (YHOO), Decided not to stop there and now its going after Google's (GOOG) AdSense Program. This they explains it's claim:


Google charges its advertising customers when someone "clicks" on one of their ads. During the sign-up process, users tell Google the maximum that they are willing to pay per "click."

During this process, users encounter two adjacent boxes. Into the first, customers enter the amount they wish to pay per "click" of an ad displayed on Google.com. The second box is marked "optional." Into this box, a user can enter the amount they would be willing to pay per "click" of an ad appearing on a third party web page. But leaving the box blank does not prevent ads from appearing on third-party sites.
Instead, Google places the ads on third-party sites anyway. And users are automatically charged per click based on the amount they entered into the first box. This suit arises from the fact that both actions occur without the user being informed.

Source:

Google Sued for Ad Program Fraud by Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP

Yahoo's Fate Could be Decided Today

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Today is a big day at Yahoo (YHOO)- today it is the day of the profit reports , which may decide would Microsoft (MSFT) raise it's bid or not.

Later this afternoon Yahoo shall reveal it's first quarter earnings. In January, Yahoo forecast first-quarter advertising sales ranging from $1.28 billion to $1.38 billion, excluding the revenue it shares with partners. Wall Street analysts expect actual revenue to hit $1.32 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

According to Collins Stewart's analyst, Sandeep Aggarwal : "Microsoft is not acquiring Yahoo for a quarter. It is acquiring Yahoo because Google is reaching a place where it will be difficult to challenge."

It surely looks like (MFST) is afraid of Google's growing power and might and In my humble opinion have a darn good reason to do so : Besides basically monopoly on search result and web advertising, MS is even more afraid of growing popularity of web based apps - something that can shatter the sales of Microsoft's golden goose - Microsoft Office. Everyone uses Word and Excel, right? Do you have any idea how much Standard or god forbid , Professional office costs ???

Source:
http://origin.mercurynews.com/business/ci_9011300

UPDATE: Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Tuesday that Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) upcoming earnings report won't change the tech giant's current bid for the Web portal. Ballmer indicated that Microsoft will stand by its offer to buy Yahoo for $31 a share even if the Internet company's results impress or disappoint Wall Street.
Source

Windows XP SP3 Final coming soon

. Monday, April 21, 2008
0 comments


Looks like Microsoft is ready to roll out final version of SP3 on April 29th. WPA2 support... Only 3 years late.... the rest of updates mostly neglectable for home user. I wonder if they won't forget to include UUA HD support and DTS patches :-)

Source:
http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9924689-57.html

On another note, GTA IV (Published by Microsoft) is also released on April 29th .... coincidence? hmmm
Update:
http://boredsysadm.blogspot.com/2008/04/windowx-xp-sp3-is-delayed-but-not-all.html

Paypal blocks Safari Internet Browser

. Friday, April 18, 2008
0 comments


Safari users are getting the boot from our beloved Ebay owned Paypal, since lack Phishing Web site check and support of for new certificate verification system - Extended Validation SSL.Paypal deemed them "unsafe".

What can say to our dear friends : TreeHuggers/PriusDrivers/IamRichEnoughtToPay$3KforLaptop - PWNed!

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7354539.stm

In Other news: People still using IE3 and IE4 ??????? WTF !!!

Update:
Under Apple pressure PayPal decided to reverse it's and now claim - Safari will never be blocked....

12x Times Boost for HD Video Encoding using video card

. Wednesday, April 16, 2008
0 comments

Yesterday, April 15, Nvidia held a press conference in Japan during which new, nothing less of Revolutionary technology was demoed.
A small and yet unknown company - Elemental Technologies has created a video encoding engine which can harness the power of your video card.
Internal test has shown speed boost of twelve times faster than using one of faster regular CPU's.
NVIDIA has demonstrated the possibilities of RapiHD engine, which uses NVIDIA video chip for video processing.

For testing a two hours HD MPEG-2 video file with 1280x720 (720p) resolution was converted to MPEG-4 with 320x240 resolution (iPod standard resolution). The Core 2 Duo 1.66GHz CPU took 7 hours and 35 minutes; Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 3.0 GHz needed 4 hours and 53 minutes. Using RapiHD Mobile Geforce 8800M needed only 56 minutes and regular GeForce 8800 GTS 512mb with 128 stream processors execute this task in 23 minutes only.

More Info:

Nvidia Shows GPU support for video encoding
Elemental Technologies Web Page
How RapiHD Works

US Patent Office Web site Mess-up

. Tuesday, April 15, 2008
0 comments

Looks like someone forgot to change the default web page on one of search servers at US Patent Office :) Right now it shows default one from SUN One Web Server Enterprise :-)
Link
Mirror here

The Need for Internet Speed: Broadband Penetration Increased More Than 300% Since 2002

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NEW YORK, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadband penetration increased more than 300 percent since 2002, according to a new analysis from consumer and media research firm Scarborough Research.
In 2002, 12 percent of U.S. adults had a broadband connection in their household. Now, almost half (49 percent) have broadband -- an increase of more than 300 percent, bringing broadband penetration to a mainstream level.
In terms of types of broadband connections, DSL connections grew more than cable modems, but both have expanded significantly.
Since 2002, cable modem penetration increased 188 percent, while DSL connections increased 575 percent.

The data in this analysis is from Scarborough's USA+ database, which is a nationally syndicated consumer study covering a sample of more than 220,000 adults ages 18 and older.

Read More:
The Need for Internet Speed: Broadband Penetration Increased More Than 300% Since 2002

The Sign of Times: More People Adopting Online Banking

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Now days common folk got plenty reasons to be unhappy : from high gas prices to questionable political policies, but looks like there is at least one thing people are satisfied about and its online banking.
According to ForeSee Results survey more people start to use online banking and liking the level of convenience such service provides.

What can I say - I have long time user of such service from my bank (one of major US banks) and my 2¢ are - No wonder.
In my experience online banking service is nothing short of the most useful tool bank can provide. In our busy world instead of going to bank or calling it (after usually a long delay, being asked the same question at least twice and having pleasure chatting with thick accent speaking rep) all I need to do is open my favorite internet browser , punch in my 16 characters password (call me paranoid :) and within 1-2 mins make the bill/rent pay,transfer balances or simply look at checking and make sure there no funny business :)

Source

How to copy files using Free LogMeIn

. Monday, April 14, 2008
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Logmein.com, a “free” alternative to Citrix’s Go To My Pc, does allow file copy with some effort. Rather complicated to setup but it works, Tested!
If you are "value oriented" like me and decided not to pay Log me in for their Pro service here is way I did it. This is not a “Hack” but rather un-elegant way around the limitation :)

Notes and Prior Requirements:
Besides you "work" and "home" pc you'll need a 2nd "work" pc.
At work a router with VPN support is needed and have active account setup and tested.

1) Open Logmein from my 2nd work pc to my home pc
2) Open (in my case Cisco) you VPN Client and establish a connection
3) Open Microsoft Remote desktop, Options->Local Resources->Disk Drives
4) Open a RDP connection to your 1st work pc by using it's internal IP address.
5) Enjoy!
You are now able to see the content of your "home" pc drives in your "work" pc's My Computer and copy files back and forward !

Step by step guide installing/Upgrading Memory/RAM on HP 6710/6715

. Saturday, April 12, 2008
0 comments


Without going into smallest detail already nicely covered in HP service manual, I'll just touch few general issues:

1) This laptop supports total of 4gb of ram devided in 2 user accessible slots.
2) Memory Modules supported type are SO-DIMM DDRII PC2-5300 (667-MHz) (up to 2048 Mb)
3) Of two memory slots only one can be easily accessed on bottom of laptop. To get access to second one you'll need to look beneath the keyboard
4) You absolutely don't have to buy original HP memory modules since HP always overprices them for no other reason than branding. HP does not manufacture ram, but trust contractors like Smart Memory

This is the Service Manual for HP 6710/6715 Laptop
To replace/update bottom slot look in page 56 (64 of 172) - Expansion memory module and for other one at page 66 (72 of 172) - Internal memory module - of course for this you'll need to release the keyboard.

Good Luck!

Best Iphone Headphone is Found !!!

. Monday, April 7, 2008
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I had heard about Etymotic Research for some time, but thanks to iLounge the Choice become MUCH easier - If you want THE absolutely best headphones/headset look no further ! Etymotic Research HF2
Only one question remains - am I willing to dump $180 on them ??

Opinion: IPhone accessories

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I'm Still Using my old Over the ear JVC HA-E130 , But I'm started to tired of them, first of all, my commute to work includes subway and high speed subway+old cars=TONS of Outside Noise! Music is loud enough, but I can't watch movies since they so bleeping quite !!
I tried to boost volume, playing with Normalization & Dynamic Range, but to no help.
The sound quality is also an issue and only EQ setting i can actually stand is POP, which makes music sound most neutral, most likely since headphones grossly overstate/understate certain frequencies.

As I previously mentioned not all 3.5mm jack will work with Iphone and I recently found a good written explanation here:
Top 3 Accessories That Won't Work with Your iPhone

"3. Your headphones might not work with the iPhone. The device's headphone jack supports 3.5-mm connectors, the port itself is recessed, and some connectors simply won't fit. The issue isn't the connector itself, but the overmold—the stubby bit of plastic that the connector protrudes from. I wasn't able to get actual dimensions, but the overmold has to be extremely slim to fit into the recessed port. For example, if the connector is L-shaped, so the overmold runs along the top of your iPod instead of sticking straight out, it won't reach the iPhone's headphone port. So there is now such as thing as iPhone-compatible headphones, and it's very possible yours don't qualify. Adaptors are sure to come, and eventually all headphone overmolds will probably bow to the iPhone's indomitable will. But for everyone dumb enough to have paid $450 for Shure earbuds, now you're even dumber."

So my GREAT SEARCH for new Iphone headphones commences... :)

First Stop I found these ones:
V-moda Vibe Duo with Control playback
However several things got worry me as a seasoned audio aficionado :) 1st) V-Moda doesn't even bother to list its headphone impedance neither its sensitivity and "humble" Frequency response: 12Hz-22kHz - Not even Etymotic Research has such numbers...

And Secondly $101 for UNKNOWN brand headphones with most likely overstated specs - sounds like a bad marketing rather the company dedicated to product quality. For JC sake, I can get Shure for less than that.

Update:
This relevant forum post confirms my suspicions.

Regarding the v-moda vibes, I have a pair myself. The good: the sound quality is wonderful for the price, the fit (at least in my ears) is superb, and they are comfortable for long periods of time.

The bad: I will caution you that v-moda ships them with the cord bound much too tightly inside the box. Because of this, the right channel often goes out completely because of the strain caused by the packaging on the junction of the left/right channels and the single cord that leads to the jack (the little silver splitter in the middle of the cord). To restore the right channel, one must play with the connection and hold the cord just right. I hope that makes sense, it is kind of hard to explain. I have already been through two pairs that have this issue, (replaced by v-moda) and it is quite disappointing.

Look elsewhere if you desire headphone durability........

Creative Story (Update)

. Wednesday, April 2, 2008
0 comments

Daniel_K aka Daniel Kawakami came out and spoke with Wired. It looks like except accepting donation (to buy more CREATIVE (CREAF) products) his driver modding allowed some of Creative features to run on competing product, which obviously got Creative upset, However practice of charging extra money for some additional driver functions on Windows Vista (btw: Free for Windows XP) is shady at best.

To quote one of best lines from interview - "Creative purposely modified the Audigy drivers to disable some features when Vista is detected and also purposely introduced some bugs to prevent some XP utilities from running."

Daniel's Blog is here and Open letter to Wired here

Internet April 1st Humor

. Tuesday, April 1, 2008
0 comments

Not Going to do much joking myself, however I did found some good examples on the web:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/promotions/2008/spring/default.htm
http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html
http://www.google.com/tisp/
http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/01/14FE-april-fool-microsoft-yahoo_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/01/14FE-april-fool-iphone-server_1.html
Enjoy :D