Peter Vatistas

TuitionU is the 1^st web site that provides the chance to rate and review resources and products in higher education and financial aid. TuitionU’s position is neutral so all providers of content, resource, and tools are welcome to participate and help grow the site. This helps create a true “one stop shop” for higher ed. TuitionU provides immediate answers to questions and access to tools and resources through a wealth of content provided by industry professionals. At TuitionU.com you can find the following:

* Peer to peer ratings and reviews for schools, lenders and much more.
* Talk to students, teachers, parents and industry experts.
* Articles related to higher education and financial aid.
* Blogs, forums, videos galleries, image galleries and of course friends!

Lots of tools can be found at TuitionU like the following:

* Student Loan Comparison
* Private Student Loan Calculators
* Student Loan Calculators
* College Cost Estimator
* Private Student Loan Payment Calculator
* Expecting Family Contributing Estimator
* Planning and Budgeting for College Calculator

I am really fascinated by this higher ed community because you find real information and advice from all sides of the industry. Parents can talk to parents about their children’s school, loans, teachers or even get insight from other students and industry professionals. Students can talk to students, parents, even schools and lenders about their options and needs for higher education.

TuitionU is a win-win for anyone looking to learn more about all aspects of higher education and because TuitionU is non-bias, you’ll always get the best answer - not a sales pitch. Where else can you rate your lender or teacher and know for sure its not a marketing team boosting the numbers? No where!!

Check out TuitionU and see for yourself how this community is really making a difference for everyone.

Well it is official, Microsoft has released the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) either via the Windows Update or Microsoft’s Download Center (website).

I’ve compiled a few quality links about the Windows XP SP3 as well as download information below. As with all my posts please feel free to post your comments (good or bad), I’m interested to hear what your opinions on the new service pack!

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Resources

• Windows XP Service Pack 3: What is new and how to deploy
  This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3, and how to deploy the service pack.
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Notes
• Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Forum
• Windows XP Solution Center

Get Windows XP Service Pack 3

TechNet Subscribers:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
  Top Subscriber Downloads section
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Integrated Builds now available
  Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong), Chinese Traditional (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Non-TechNet Subscribers:

Windows XP SP3 is now available to non-subscribers:

• Windows Update
  We recommend customers use Windows Update to install the service pack, as it will provide the best experience.
• Microsoft Download Center
• SMS Template Files for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Deployment
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Checked Build Network Installation Package
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 MUI Pack Update
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 CD Image

Good luck and of course backup your important files before making any OS upgrade - I cannot tell you how easy it is to lose everything in a split second.

Here is a quick and easy way to track page names in WebCEO’s HitLens analytics application by changing a couple variables in the tracking script. This works perfectly in Community Server 2008!

First let’s take the original code generated by HitLense:

<!–WEBSITECEO:BEGIN:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

<!–
Do NOT modify this script to avoid traffic misrepresentation!
Web CEO 4 0300/1
Code initially inserted into: “index.aspx”.
–>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
// hitlens v1.2.7
function hitlens_embedded() {
var id = 123456;
var pc = 0;
var PAGENAME = escape(”);
var CONTENTGROUP = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION_ID = 0;
var ORDER = escape(”);
return “id=”+id+”&pc=”+pc+”&p=”+PAGENAME+”&gr=”+CONTENTGROUP+”&tr=”
+TRANSACTION+”&trid=”+TRANSACTION_ID+”&ord=”+ORDER;
}
//–></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/webceo.js”></script>
<!–WEBSITECEO:END:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

Now lets add a quick line of code to the var PAGENAME = variable:

var PAGENAME = document.title;

What this will do is pull the page’s title and post it in HitLense.

The default tracking code HitLense generates also throws in the following comment that needs to be removed completely:

<!–
Do NOT modify this script to avoid traffic misrepresentation!
Web CEO 4 0300/1
Code initially inserted into: “index.aspx”.
–>

Also make sure to leave the var pc = 0; at 0. The var pc is a unique page identifier, if you use specialized tracking (like above) instead of the wizard-driven setup then you’ll definitely need to keep it at 0 or your going to run into some problems.

Your final tracking code should look like this:

<!–WEBSITECEO:BEGIN:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
// hitlens v1.2.7
function hitlens_embedded() {
var id = 123456;
var pc = 0;
var PAGENAME = document.title;
var CONTENTGROUP = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION_ID = 0;
var ORDER = escape(”);
return “id=”+id+”&pc=”+pc+”&p=”+PAGENAME+”&gr=”+CONTENTGROUP+”&tr=”
+TRANSACTION+”&trid=”+TRANSACTION_ID+”&ord=”+ORDER;
}
//–></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/webceo.js”></script>
<!–WEBSITECEO:END:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

Good luck!

I thought this was pretty funny:

While Google’s spider “crawled” the whatsmyip.org site it managed to record it’s own IP in the title and publish it in the Google SERPS. Funny stuff.

I have been a member of Microsoft’s IT Advisory Council for quite some time now and I am really impressed with the community response for Microsoft related issues and discussion.

The IT Advisory Council is a select group of IT Professionals and Developers, which purpose is to share your views, ideas and opinions, helping Microsoft shape future initiatives. As a member, you play an integral part in providing the ITAC and Microsoft with feedback on Microsoft customer offerings, licensing, support, marketing materials and community initiatives.

Members communicate with each other via an online portal and a program of face-to-face and online events. Each event is currently limited to 12 members to ensure rich discussion and members will be eligible to participate based on a point-system in the portal. Membership also involves completing a monthly online ‘task’, which can be completing a mini-survey or sharing member experiences on the portal forums and blogs to help Microsoft understand what it’s like to be in Microsoft “expert” shoes.

The ITAC is a locked community meaning that just not anyone can join and participate. The ITAC offers an application process for anyone interested to join. After you complete the application process your information is reviewed by a board of administrators and moderators and you are notified within a week whether your accepted.

Give it a shot, apply to the Microsoft IT Advisory Council and help make a difference!

Today I was lucky enough to attend Microsoft’s Hero’s Happen {here} and all I can say is “wow”. Microsoft is taking big steps in the right direction and really listening to what the IT world wants and needs - finally. Although the seminars were very informative I really benefited from the exhibitor hall where sponsors, partners and general businesses complimenting Microsoft products set up shop.

I met a lot of smart people and a few key developers (which I have been looking for). All in all this was a great event and the schwag just rocked! Attending Hero’s happen {here} gets you Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate!! Thank you Microsoft!!

Trillian Astra build 75 was just released and there are a lot of great new features, read more here: Trillian Astra Build 75.

If your ready to play with Trillian Astra but don’t want to wait forever for Cerulean Studio’s to release it or approve you to become a beta tester then click here to download the torrent.

After install you’ll find that Trillian Astra won’t connect so here’s a quick and easy work around:

1.First of all you’ll need to create a username in trillian astra inside the client.

2.Now when you try to connect it won’t connect right? Exit out of trillian

3.Go to this directory: C:\Document and Settings\YourName\Application Data\Trillian\users\(your username)

4.Find the file ASTRA-(your username).ini and open it in notepad.

5. You’ll see a line that says prefsConnectionSettingsServerPort=3158

6. Change the number from 3158 to 4444

7.Now save the file and try logging on in trillian

Good luck!

Google raises awareness for energy conservation by changing the Google homepage to black, “turning the lights out”. On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. I think this is a fantastic idea and really the first attempt I’ve every seen to raise awareness and actually start something globally.

I’ll be turning off my lights tonight, will you?

Click here to go to the Google Earth Hour page.

Vista 64 Bit SP1 Update

Vista 32bit SP1 Update

OpenDNS is a fantastic free service for filtering phishing sites, adult sites, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It also does perform DNS lookups faster than any site that I have seen to date.  It is easy to admin and you can control your entire enterprise with this service.  Best of all it’s free.

One feature I love about OpenDNS is how I can globally set shortcuts to use a short word for a long address. There’s nothing to install and it works how you want it to, no matter which browser you’re using. Add, remove or change your OpenDNS shortcuts at any time.

OpenDNS provides you with the tools to see what’s happening on your network, coupled with the tools to take action. For example, discover that myspace.com is the most frequently visited site on your network, and then block it with a single click.

“Free yourself of DNS-related Internet outages with our zero-downtime global network. Eliminate DNS as a problem source on your network. Using OpenDNS means fewer support calls and headaches, letting you focus on more important issues.” 

Click here to read more and sign up for OpenDNS.