Peter Vatistas

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.

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

Here are just a few screenshots of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. Funny thing with IE8 is there are many Microsoft sites that do not work well with IE8. What? I thought that was a little funny, thats all!

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