There’s a couple of updates to last Tuesday’s Microsoft patches that are worth mentioning. First, Microsoft updated MS07-036 to include Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac as a vulnerable application. So if you run Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac you’ll need to patch it. I don’t run the software so can’t say how the patch works. The vulnerability is rated as “Important” for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. Also, Slashdot has a posting about people experiencing problems with the .NET updates from last Tuesday. This was bulletin MS07-040. Most problems are [...] Read the rest »
Microsoft Patch Tuesday for July 2007
It’s the second Tuesday of July and that means patches from Microsoft. This month brings six patches, three rated critical, two important, and one moderate. Only five patches are for desktop software and Windows Vista also gets its own unique patch although it’s the one rated moderate. Of these, only the .NET patches and the Vista patch were needed on my PCs. In addition to these security updates I also received a update (through automatic update) related to Intel processors. This was called a “microcode reliability update”. My test PCs [...] Read the rest »
Mac Consideration Makes Frontpage
http://news.com.com/Mac+desktops+are+smarter+money%2C+says+CIO/2100-1016_3-6195778.html?tag=nefd.top CNet’s News.com has a front page story (not an entry to one of their blogs) about a UK company considering Macs as alternatives to their Windows PCs. They have 700 PC users. Now, I like Macs and use them as my personal computers, but if this potential 700 PC switch is front page news then either there’s little risk of Windows desktop losing market share or news.com has an agenda. Read the rest »
Patch Tuesday for June 2007
Microsoft released six security patches today. Four of them were rated critical, one important and one moderate. There are patches for all supported desktop OS platforms, Internet Explorer, a couple mail apps and for a couple versions of Visio. There aren’t any Office patches. The critical desktop patches are: MS07-031 for Windows XP SP2, Windows XP x64 and Windows XP x64 SP2. It’s rated as “important” for Windows 2000 SP4. Earlier versions of Windows 2000 and XP may be affected but aren’t supported by Microsoft. On Windows XP this vulnerability [...] Read the rest »
Maxtor OneTouch III Update
I first wrote about the Maxtor OneTouch III back in December and now that I’ve had it awhile it’s a good time for an update. I’ve been running it connected to my iMac since my initial review. I also gave one to my father as to use as a backup drive with a Windows PC. The hardware has been reliable. My main complaint is it’s slower than other drives when spinning up from sleep mode. It’s fast enough for use as a backup drive although I haven’t tried running applications [...] Read the rest »
Western Digital My Book 500GB Drive w/ EMC Retrospect Software
I purchased the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500 GB External Hard Drive with Triple Interface (slight variations in the name indicate different models so be sure to check the specs when buying) to become a backup drive for my iMac, but I want to give it a spin under Windows first. This article is my first impression of the drive and Restrospect Backup software (included) under Windows. I mentioned the drive last month when I commented on a Computerworld review that picked the drive over the other 3 [...] Read the rest »
Patch Tuesday for May 2007
Mac users take note – It’s the second Tuesday of May and that means it’s patch day for Microsoft. Microsoft released 7 critical update bulletins. Three of them affect Office 2004 for Mac so if you’re a Office 2004 for Mac user read on along with just about every Windows user. Two of the seven bulletins are for servers only. MS07-026 is for Exchange Server, including the latest version. MS07-029 is for the RPC interface to DNS server and affects their server software. That leaves 5 bulletins for desktops. Three [...] Read the rest »
MacMozy Beta Client Updated – Twice
Mozy released two updates to their Mac Mozy client last week. I started the week on Mac Mozy version 0.4.1.1, went to version 0.4.1.2 on Thursday and 0.4.1.4 on Friday. In other good news, Mozy is now publishing the list of fixes in new versions in their FAQ. Version 0.4.1.2 fixed the following bugs: Unable to select files on partitions beside the operating system’s partition. Log file filling up hard drive. Unable to select files on external hard drives. Selecting files and folders yielded strange sizes. The backup would hang [...] Read the rest »
Thunderbird 2.0 First Look
Thunderbird 2.0 was just released. Thunderbird is the email client I’ve been using since my problems with Apple Mail so I was eager to get the upgrade. While I like Thunderbird I haven’t been completly comfortable with it and I’m hoping the upgrade helps Thunderbird grow on me. Download and Install Thunderbird 2.0 is available here. It will automatically present the download for the OS and language you’re using at the time. There’s also a link to download the install for other OS’s and languages. For the Mac the download [...] Read the rest »
It’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday
Microsoft released four security patches that they rated critical. They are… MS07-018 is for Content Management server and doesn’t affect it’s desktop OS’s. MS07-019 is for a vulnerability in Universal Plug and Play. It only affects Windows XP SP2 and the 64-bit version of Windows XP. Note that MS doesn’t support WinXP SP1 and the fact that it’s not listed doesn’t mean it isn’t vulnerable. It just means Microsoft wants you on the latest SP and if you aren’t they don’t care. (To be fair, by now you should be [...] Read the rest »