Peter Vatistas

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.

I’ve been getting requests from many of you asking where to download the Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2. Just remember that the SP3 RC2 is a Beta and I’ve read many threads in Technet & the Microsoft IT Advisory about the degradation of performance after installing SP3 RC2; you may want to want if you cannot afford to lose any data on your PC.

Some new features SP3 adds to Windows XP:

* Black Hole Router Detection
* Network Access Protection (NAP)
* Descriptive Security Options User Interface
* Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries
* Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
* Windows Product Activation (Now users can install Windows XP without entering a product key, much like Vista)

Click here to download Windows XP SP3 RC2

Click here to read details about Windows XP SP3 RC2

This is an awesome application that allows you to plug your Mac formatted and partitioned hard drive (internal & external) into your PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista. I had several external hard drives that I formatted and partitioned on OS X Leopard. I brought one of the drives home to grab some data off of it on my Vista box when I realized there is no way to view the data. After searching for a few hours I found MacDrive, the exact solution I needed for this situation. MacDrive came recommended by some very reputable members on the Microsoft IT Advisory Council (thanks guys!).

MacDrive gives you access to all your Mac-formatted disks from Windows and even the Mac partition. You can access files on the Mac disk just like you would with a Windows formatted disk. Open files from the disk or from within a program. Mac files automatically get the right icons and file name extensions under both Windows and Mac OS.

Click here to read more and download

It was a big day for Microsoft yesterday, heres just a few things they released to help shape the web:

• Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1: Microsoft unveiled for the first time Internet Explorer 8, showcasing Internet Explorer’s commitment to developers. Internet Explorer 8 offers an unprecedented level of interoperability and tools, enabling developers to be more productive while delivering innovative experiences for end users on the Web. Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 for developers, released today, provides the most extensive support for Internet standards of any Microsoft browser and reduces the amount of time required to bring new experiences online.
• Silverlight 2 Beta: Silverlight 2 supports managed code, includes the core of the Common Language Runtime and adds over two dozen user interface controls (such as Button, CheckBox, Date controls, GridView and Layout) that are designed to be used right out of the box, or to be tweaked with styles. If you need full control over the look and feel, the appearance of any control can be fully determined by templates and control behavior can be modified by hooking events, or ultimately by creating custom controls.
• Expression Studio 2 Beta: Expression Studio 2 works seamlessly with Visual Studio to enable better designer and developer collaboration. New features include PHP support in Expression Web, and support for Silverlight in Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Media Encoder and Expression Design.
• SQL Server Data Services: Microsoft announced a preview of SQL Server Data Services, a building block service designed for developers and businesses that need scalable, easily programmable and cost-effective data storage with robust database query capabilities. MIX08 attendees will be able to register for an invitation-only beta of Microsoft SQL Server Data Services.

“One issue we heard repeatedly during the IE7 beta concerned sites that looked fine in IE6 but looked bad in IE7. The reason was that the sites had worked around IE6 issues with content that – when viewed with IE7’s improved Standards mode – looked bad.

As we started work on IE8, we thought that the same thing would happen in the short term: when a site hands IE8 content and asks for Standards mode, that content would expect IE7’s Standards mode and not appear or function correctly.

In other words, the technical challenge here is how can IE determine whether a site’s content expects IE8’s Standards mode or IE7’s Standards mode? Given how many sites offer IE very different content today, which should IE8 default to?

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind.

In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly (using the http header/meta tag approach described here).”

I think it is about time the Internet Explorer team over at Microsoft is listening, Mozilla has been listening for years. I still prefer Firefox over IE for two simple reasons:

1. Add-ons. Mozilla’s Firefox has a very strong following and there are a ton of awesome add-ons available.

2. Security. I’ve never had one issue with security using Mozilla Firefox. One of my websites was hacked some months ago and BS javascript was added. I never noticed it nor had any issues because I was using Firefox 2. One day I decided to check how my site looked in IE7 and WHAM - pop-ups, browser crashes, and a few new programs were installed on my computer (not to mention all the stupid viruses).

I am kind of excited to see what Microsoft pulls out of their hats on IE8 - they always seem to surprise me.

Read more here. 

Today Intel announced their new line of low-power processors which are specifically designed for mobile internet devices (MIDs). I think this is huge news for what is to come in the near future from Apple, Microsoft and others.

The Atom (formerly called “Silverthorne”) and the Atom Centrino (formerly called “Menlow”) are based on an entirely new micro-architecture designed specifically for small (Intel Atom’s measure 25 mm², making it Intel’s smallest and lowest power processor yet), low power devices while maintaining the Intel Core 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to and includes support for multiple threads (better performance and increased system responsiveness).

Here is an image of the new killer processor:

Click here to read more on the new Intel Atom

The other night I was organizing all my files, pictures, and music on my computer and I realized if I were to lose even one folder I would be screwed. Normally I run backups every night using an external drive but I never really checked it. I decided to check my backup drives to make sure everything was working properly and the data was there, it wasn’t.

Now just so you know, at one time or another my backup drives were working properly and when I needed to restore any data it was not that hard. For some reason my main backup drive had failed and then data was lost but fortunately for me I still had everything on my main drives. That got me thinking, what is the best and easiest solution out there for backing up my data without worrying about replacing hard drives or making sure everything is running properly. I am an IT guy by day, I don’t want to be an IT guy at home.

A few hours later I found the solution I was looking for and it was a bit overwhelming. I posted my question for a remote backup solutions in many forums, blogs, as well as emailing my IT friends and colleagues; almost everyone said “Mozy“. So I went to the Mozy website and signed up for their MozyHome Free account, 2GB’s of storage! Here is a few features Mozy offers to all their customers, free and paid:

* Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
* 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
* 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
* Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
* New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
* Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
* Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.
* MozyHome currently supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4
* MozyPro supports Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista.

Those are some pretty slick services and support for no up front or monthly charges. Whats really cool is their software that is installed on your computer. The application itself runs in the background and has a very small footprint with regards to your memory (RAM) and CPU utilization. Another cool feature is how you can set the amount of bandwidth you want it to use during backups. Because I have a cable modem I set that puppy as high as it can go but for anyone out there who has DSL or less you can throttle it to whatever you need.

Whether your looking for a backup solution or not, Mozy is the only free, full-featured remote backup service. Get peace of mind - click here to try Mozy today.

More and more people are emailing me, annoyed at popup windows in Firefox that cannot resize and are the wrong dimension (this becomes an issue when you can’t see a damn thing!). It never really bothered me until today when I visited 2 websites where this issue occurred and I was forced to use IE7 to see the popup. So, here is the solution:

1. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar.
2. Scroll down to dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable and double-click it (changes to bold and value changes to true.)
3. Done. Just restart Firefox and have endless ability to resize all popup windows. Wow.

If you read the comments from “How to Install OS X Leopard on a PC - iATKOS v1.0i Tutorial” you’ll see the issues I had when I tried to install Microsoft Windows XP after removing Ox86 Leopard from my Compaq laptop. When I booted the Windows XP Pro installation CD I was getting the error message “Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer”. After trying several times to partition and format (with no luck) I decided to try a very neat tool out called nLite.

nLite allowed me to configure my Microsoft Windows install CD by adding drivers and applications. I downloaded my laptop’s sata controller driver from Compaq’s website and added it and to the driver configuration portion of nLite as well as selecting “Bootable ISO”. After a couple minutes I had a new bootable Windows XP installation CD and no more missing hard disk error.

From what I found this error is quite normal for people that have sata hard drives, who have installed Microsoft Windows Vista and decided to downgrade back to Microsoft Windows XP.

Click Here Download nLite

Dell Drivers | HP Drivers | Compaq Drivers | Gateway Drivers | Sony Drivers | Asus | Toshiba

A few days ago I installed OS X Leopard on two different PC’s, a Compaq laptop and a SuperMicro Dual Quad-Core Xeon powerhouse with 8GB ram. Both machines run OS X Leopard perfectly and the installation process was just as straightforward and easy as installing OS X on a Mac, only a few extra steps!

So how did I install OS X Leopard on my PC? Simple: iATKOS v1.0i

Do a quick search using your favorite torrent search portal for “iATKOS v1.0i” , download it, burn to DVD, pop that puppy into your test computer’s DVD drive and reboot**. During the install process there are a few extra steps so I will list what you need to do below:

# When the Welcome screen pops up click Continue

1. At the Terms & Conditions screen do not click Agree yet, click Utilities on the Apple bar at the top of your screen and then select Disk Utility from the drop down menu (Utilities > Disk Utility).

2. Select your hard drive’s partition on the left hand side then select the Erase tab on the right.

3. Now click the Erase button on the bottom right and click Erase again on the pop-up. When this is complete close the Disk Utility.

4. Now go back up to the Apple menu bar and select Utilities > Darwin_Boot

5. Type Y (yes) to continue, 1 for your HDD number (if your using the main HDD), and 1 again for the partition number OS X will be installed on (if your installing on a different partition enter that partition number instead of 1).

6. Type Y (yes) to install boot efi and type Y (yes) again to confirm. Once it this process in complete it will display [process completed] and you can now exit out of Darwin_boot.

7. Please read the Terms & Conditions for iATKOS v1.0i and click Agree (if you agree).

8. Now your ready to install OS X Leopard on your PC, just follow the on screen guide and your good to go!

Best of luck!

** I will not be held liable for any damage that results from this tutorial. If you attempt to install OS X Leopard (iATKOS v1.0i) onto your computer it is at your own risk.

UPDATE (June 19th, 2008): For your questions and/or comments go to the Peter-V Forum and post here: How to Install OS X Leopard on a PC - iATKOS v1.0i Tutorial - Forum Style