Happy New Year!

Its 2008!!!

Happy New Year!

 

Weekly Tutorial | Applications | Facebook Files by Box.net

Hello, welcome to another Weekly Tutorial post, this time on Applications. We’ll be reviewing a Facebook application that let’s you store all your personal documents and files in one place on the internet. Facebook Files by Box.net let’s you upload your favourite files from your computer and share them with your friends.

Click on applications, type ‘Facebook files’ in the browse more applications box, and add the application.

The first thing you’ve got to do is register at box.net which can be cone right there in the application page. After registering, just click Upload New Files and voila! (I’ really like to say that!:) You can choose what files you want to upload, and Facebook Files will do it for you. Why don’t you check it out!

A Moment Of Silence For The Tsunami Victims

We at CyberTrix ask all you bloggers out there to observe a minute of silence in prayer and thought for those who lost their lives in the 2004 Tsunami…………………….

Daily Tip | Dec. 26th | Applications – Facebook RSS – You favourite blogs in your own profile!

Hi there, welcome to another edition of Daly Tips and CyberTrix!

Today, we’ll be focusing on a Facebook application which lets you embed RSS into your own profile page. Now, you need not budge from your profile page to read your favourite web news, blog posts, etc. Among the many RSS applications available on Facebook, Simply RSS caught my attention, because, well, it’s simply simple!Just type Simply RSS in the application finder and hit enter.

Once you have added the application, click ‘add a new feed, fill in all the details and specifications and voila! You have your blog posts right in your profile Try it now!

Patch to a patch of a patch needs patching

In the latest incident of a now-chronic problem that has been bugging Microsoft all year, a recent security patch now causes IE6 to crash in Windows XP…again.
In a classic Tim Conway comedy sketch, he plays a corpse being prepared for a funeral by mortician Harvey Korman. But one limb of Conway’s body simply insists on sticking up in the air, and whenever Korman finally retracts it, another one pops up elsewhere. This morning, Microsoft must know what it was like to have been one of Carol Burnett’s regulars, as the Internet Explorer team admitted that a chronic problem that was supposed to have been cumulatively updated by last Patch Tuesday’s round of updates, causes a new problem: Internet Explorer 6 will crash on systems running Windows XP Service Pack 2.

News Source: BetaNews

“This might occur while navigating to a website,” reads a post by IE security program manager Terry McCoy yesterday, “hosting considerable media content (for example: [Link]) resulting in Internet Explorer displaying a dialog that states ‘Internet Explorer has experienced a problem and needs to close.”‘
Last February, URLMON.DLL was at the crux of another code instantiation vulnerability. After the fix was applied that month, a new form of the same problem cropped up in June.
The February vulnerability cropped up following a patch to a problem in URLMON.DLL that turned up in August 2006, after some users installed a previous patch and discovered that their IE6 would crash.
While Microsoft didn’t provide specifics of today’s problem up front in its latest messages to customers, it was the nature of the workaround it suggests in its security bulletin this morning that revealed another instance of the same old problem: One of IE’s principal libraries, URLMON.DLL, has been patched periodically throughout the year to address issues with possible malicious remote code instantiation. The library’s purpose is to provide an interface to IE’s communications protocols using the Windows Component Object Model, and it’s designed so that other programs can extend this interface for new protocol functions — for instance, security routines.
Not just any component should be able to plug into the IE protocols, which is why filters are typically applied. Those filters are currently enrolled in the Windows System Registry, and this morning’s workaround would effectively turn some of those filters off…which in the long run may not be a very good idea.
Nevertheless, McCoy is strongly recommending IE6 users to go ahead and apply the patch which causes the crash for security purposes, and then apply the workaround which could very well open up a new rash of problems.
Unlike the great Harvey Korman, some users out there may not be laughing hysterically.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC ‘Refresh’ Released

Just a week after releasing Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC1 (3244) to the public, Microsoft have released a slightly newer Refresh build (3264). This update, like the original, is available to anyone and can be obtained via the Microsoft Download Center.

A full list of changes can be found via Microsoft Connect, or in the XP SP3 whitepaper below.

View: Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview
Download: Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC (Build 3264)
News Source: JCXP

Microsoft Readies Zune Firmware Update 2.3

The Microsoft Zune team released firmware version 2.3 for the portable multimedia device. The update is not a major one, meaning no new features will be added. It does, however, address a battery issue that a minor amount of Zune 30 and Zune 80 users have been experiencing. More specifically, the problem occurs when users suspend their Zune hard drives by holding down the play/pause button – in some cases the battery continues to drain. The firmware update will also reportedly improve device recognition as well as stability and reliability during syncing (both wirelessly and while connected to a PC).

The update is available through Zune software now.

Settings>Device>Device update

Vista SP1 Release Candidate Public

On 12 Dec 2007, Microsoft made available the public release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate 1.

Service Pack 1 includes several improvements to the operating system, including stability and performance fixes as well as many new features and enhancements. As with most service packs, this release also includes all updates previously released for the operating system.

The service pack can be downloaded via Microsoft Download Center or via Windows Update after applying a system patch (see links below).

As this is a pre-release, there is an evaluation period. If you install the service pack, it will expire after June 30th, 2008. However, the final version of Service Pack 1 is expected to be released in January.

Note: If you are running a 64-Bit edition of Windows Vista, the service pack can only be downloaded from Windows Update.

Download: Vista SP1 RC1 via Windows Update
Download: Vista SP1 RC1 via Microsoft Download Center

Source: JCXP

MacWorld 2008

Okay, nobody thnks that this MacWorld will have as big of an annoucement as the iPhone, but reports have surfaced online that Apple has already sold 5 Million iPhones around the world, halfway to their goal of 10 million by the end of 2008.

A newer iPhone model is also expected to be released with a higher speed for internet (see last post about iPhone for the rest of the features expected)

Along the line of new things from Apple, people are also anticipating a new slimmer, iMac that will rethink the way we talk about laptops…

After the MacWorld 2008, I will write another post about what was announced so look out for it

Asus announces U2 hotness

We’re not sure why Asus damned its hot new laptop by announcing it prior to CES (unlike its predecessor, the U1) — and on a Saturday, no less — but you can’t question the quality: Core Duo ULV or Centrino, 802.11a/b/g, Vista (from Basic to Ultimate), 11.1-inch 1366 x 768 LED-backlit display, 32GB SSD option, up to 4GB RAM in a 2.75 pound 1.1-inch thick footprint. We’ll spare you the Bono ref or jokes about the lack of Edge data.