General Computer Stuff

Windows XP to 7 Updating

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Update: 4/30/2014 – ICH/AHCI Information Added

As I move friends and clients off Windows XP I have run into some problems. Most are easy to solve, if you understand the problem. Others are impossible to solve because there is no workable solution. I decided to provide the information I’ve had to learn over the last few weeks So, if you are wondering if you can update your computer running Windows XP to Windows 7 or 8/8.1 this is something for you to read.

Hidden RT7 Lite Error Message
Hidden RT7 Lite Error Message

I doubt I know all there is to know about this upgrade path. But, I have successfully done a number of updates from Xp to 7. I probably haven’t found all the problems or the best software. But, I do have software that works. I’ve also run into some knotty problems that it took a lot of research to solve. So, hopefully this will save some of some time. 

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Facebook’s Newswire

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When there isn’t much happening in SL on the development front, I tend to write about other things that affect our online lives. For me this is a slow news week. So, I bring you: FB Newswire…

Simopolis?
Simopolis?

While the goals of Facebook and Google are similar, ID’ing and profiling every person on the planet for targeted advertising, their approaches and execution are different. However, I think their successful implementation of products have simpler similarities.

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Google+ Is Walking Dead

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This is interesting, at least I found it so:  Google+ Is Walking Dead.

Vic Gundotra, the brains behind Google+, is leaving Google. This raises questions about Google+’s future. Add to that management’s decision to move staff working on Google+ to other teams, like Android. Rumor is something like 1,000 employees have been moved to other teams. Now that is a move.

Take away the brains and muscle (engineers) and it is a pretty good indication the product is being abandoned.

The word is Google’s goal is to have every Internet/Google user be a ‘signed in user’ via Google. It appears G+ wasn’t getting them there. Plus Facebook has pretty well captured that market. The attempt to push G+ on everyone was apparently creating blow back. Have you tried a Nexus phone? The recommended way to move your contacts is to put them into your Google login and then download them to your phone.

Of course Google would never read your email or addresses. Nor would the NSA…

WordPress Updating 3.9

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WordPress has been releasing several updates. Today I see they have released version 3.9. If you are a WordPress user, this is an interesting update for you. This update has lots of improved editing features. There are lots of people writing nice reviews of this release. So, I’ll only link to those:

If you use Ultimate TinyMCE, you won’t like the new editing window. Version 3.9 basically trashes its interface. 3.9 does not provide all the bells and whistles that Tiny MCE has. So, Tiny MCE users lose some functionality.

Second Life and the Mac WebKit Problem

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Me... a Protester?
Me… a Protester?

 My readers will know Mac users have a problem. There is no near term solution to the problem for several reasons. Even more confusing is there are multiple problems. And today a group approached me hoping to put together a movement to show Linden Lab the extent of the problem and the interest in getting it fixed.

So, I’m scratching my head wondering if the Lab is in a position to fix the problem… and which problem are we talking about? Since I’m not a Mac user, I’m probably not the best one to write this, but no one else seems to be covering it.

I’ve touched on Mac issues in the past; Second Life News 2013-11, Firestorm Viewer News 2014-7, Viewer Release Pipeline Update, and others. The SL Viewer and Third Party Viewers are moving to support Apple’s Cocoa frame work or may be I should say did so move in 2013. But, that has left Apple users on older operating systems behind. SL apparently has problems running in the older Apple OS’s. This has resulted in Apple users staying with older viewer versions.

As we near another release of the Firestorm Viewer those issues are coming to a crisis point for some users. The recent blocking of Firestorm 4.4.0 is bringing home the point of the team only allowing 3 versions to run on the SL grid and blocking older versions. People are getting the idea the team is actually blocking older viewers. 

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Second Life and HeartBleed

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The media is trying for ratings. To get them, they over hype things. I am also convinced that journalist become journalist because they cannot do math or understand science, which to some degree means technology. So, they have little understanding of HeartBleed, what it does, how it does it, or what it means.

HeartBleed
HeartBleed

To put things in some perspective check out: Answering the Critical Question: Can You Get Private SSL Keys Using Heartbleed?

The quick explanation of HeartBleed is that it is an exploit run on SERVERS that use the OpenSSL code and only certain versions of it. Anti-virus and anti-malware software cannot fix or protect you from such a problem.

So, if someone is selling protection, they are selling into the hype-generated fear. They are opportunists, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But, if they are providing software for your computer they are only providing some people peace of mind. You can get peace of mind for free from understanding the reality.

Cloudflare’s explanation is what I’ll call medium level technical. It is readable and I think SL users will probably understand it. But, the TL;DR is:

The exploit in the server code will allow a hacker to trick the server into sending them the code they need to decrypt HTTPS encrypted network packets. When you browser talks to a bank or other server using OpenSSL the network packets traveling back and forth are encrypted. To date no one has been able to break that encryption. So, your conversation is secure. 

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