Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

While Windows XP still has its place with portable computer users who appreciate its lightweight hardware requirements, consumers buying a standard tower desktop system should insist on Windows Vista.

About 5 minutes ago, my automatic updating function in Windows XP notified me that I had received a new update to install. The update, KB925486, is designed to address “A security issue…that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by […]

In April of 2005 I brought you a story on our radio show Compute This (Saturdays from 10-11 in Lincoln, NE) about a small Fremont law firm that managed to successfully sue Microsoft for 22.6 million for anti-competitive practices in the state of Nebraska.You can listen to the archived interview here.

Microsoft settled the class action suit and agreed to pay 50% of any unclaimed funds from the settlement in the form of technology vouchers to Nebraska’s public schools. Schools were awarded the vouchers based upon need as measured by participation in the Federal School Lunch Program.

Based on those calculations, the Omaha World Herald reported today that Omaha Public Schools was awarded $4.05 Million after filing some grueling paperwork to prove that they were qualified to receive the funds under the settlement.

With everything going on this past week, Microsoft’s visit to Omaha for a technical seminar was unfortunately buried in the news. However, our own Blaze was in attendance and asked the questions our customers have passed to us about Office 2007 and Vista over the past few months.

The question I have been asked more often than not is how much the products would cost. The question caught the presenter off guard, as he seemed very qualified to speak to the technical aspects of the software rather than the business and supply channel plans. He told Blaze that he was not absolutely certain, but he could not imagine Vista costing more than Windows XP does now.

Microsoft released 12 new security updates on Tuesday, and the Department of Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install them as quickly as possible to plug a new security vulnerability similar to the one that the MS-Blaster virus exploited.

Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install Microsoft’s MS06-040 patch as soon as possible. Viruses that exploit RPC vulnerabilities like MS Blaster did tend to cut through antivirus programs like Swiss cheese, resulting in a potentially hefty repair bill.

Microsoft released 12 new security updates on Tuesday, and the Department of Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install them as quickly as possible to plug a new security vulnerability similar to the one that the MS-Blaster virus exploited.

Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install Microsoft’s MS06-040 patch as soon as possible. Viruses that exploit RPC vulnerabilities like MS Blaster did tend to cut through antivirus programs like Swiss cheese, resulting in a potentially hefty repair bill.

Microsoft has already reported that the exploit is being used to begin infecting computers, and some security companies have already started making tools that will help you determine if your computer has been patched or not.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told local software partners at a Cape Town technology conference Articles in the Omaha World Herald today as well as on ZDnet.com reveal that the release of Windows Vista in January is not a 100% certainty.

Here is something interesting I found today on the web that should keep you amused for a while. The internet archive is a repository of web pages form the past. In a way it acts like an internet time machine to show you what a website looked like years ago.

This website allows you to look at the revisions of a website over time going back as far as 1996. The Microsoft we all know and love today has a pretty advanced website, but that was not always the case.

I found this story on an Australian news website. I have no idea if it is true, but either way it is funny.

Microsoft executives love telling stories against each other. Here’s one that platforms vice-president Jim Allchin told at a recent Windows Vista reviewers conference about chief executive Steve Ballmer.

It seems Steve was at a friend’s wedding reception when the bride’s father complained that his PC had slowed to a crawl and would Steve mind taking a look.

A new security loophole has surfaced in Microsoft Word 2002 and greater that could leave your computer open to any number of attacks. Microsoft acknowledged the threat today and explained a work around that does not immediately fix the problem, but would limit some of the effects if you were hit by a bug that exploited this vulnerability – run Microsoft Word in Safe Mode.

Running Word in safe mode is a little like running Windows in Safe Mode. It will restrict some of its higher-level functions such as integrating with Outlook as your email client.