Users running amd processors are finding that Service Pack 3 for XP causes a reboot cycle.

The only way out of this is to boot into safe mode & uninstall SP3.

Microsoft has re-released Windows XP Service Pack 3 after withdrawing it last week.

Now available from windows update, Microsoft download center and as an iso cd image.

The iso is bigger than the network install from the download center which is bigger than the windows update version. Why? We don't know.

No news on the Vista service pack.

Microsoft has halted Distribution of Service Pack 3 for XP & Service Pack 1 for Vista.

This is due to problems with Microsoft's 'Dynamics Retail Management System' which is used by about 38 thousand small and medium businesses.

8:49AM, Monday 31st March 2008
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/picture_libra...ic_87831_t.jpg BT has issued details of the first 868 exchanges to get its next-generation 21CN broadband service. The 21CN network offers speeds up to a theoretical maximum of 24Mb/sec, although actual throughput will be significantly slower for many customers, according to BT's own figures.
82 exchanges will be switched on to BT's new Wholesale Broadband Connect by the end of April, covering roughly 5% of the country. BT has already enabled 39 of those exchanges, a full list of which can found on...

I thought I was seeing things at http://www.google.com but ..

http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/

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. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.
reminded me of a link Ian had the other day http://www.blackle.com

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

From The Register
Microsoft looks to fix bugs with desktop search
Yet another Vista update
By Kelly Fiveash Published Friday 28th March 2008 14:27 GMT
Microsoft has slipped out a new version of its Windows desktop search engine for its Vista operating system to fix bugs with the previous version.
The release appeared more than a week after service pack one (SP1) hit the firms Windows Update site as a manual download for some Vista peeps.
Microsoft said on its Vista team blog that it had tweaked the search engine to rid it of most of the reported bugs in the current version that many have grumbled about.
However, it didnt reveal which flaws...

From The Register
Mozilla plugs 10 security holes in Firefox
By Kelly Fiveash Published Thursday 27th March 2008 11:56 GMT
Mozilla coughed its latest Firefox update this week and patched ten flaws – five of which were critical vulnerabilities – in the latest version of its browser.
The firm said it strongly recommended that Firefox fanciers upgrade to version 2.0.0.13 because of the number of security fixes built into the latest update.
Critical flaws that have now been patched in the Internet Explorer rival include a brace of exploits that could crash Firefox or its JavaScript engine and cause an arbitrary code execution.
The update, which applies to Windows,...

Government Advisor (The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR)) argues that phorm is illegal in an open letter to the Information Commissioner.

http://www.fipr.org/080317icoletter.html

Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for $850m (£417m) in cash.

Bebo is the third-biggest social networking site in the US, behind MySpace and Facebook.

AOL says that Bebo has more than 40 million members worldwide who view an average of 78 pages per day each.

The price-tag is tiny when compared with the valuations of similar websites. Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook last year for $240m.

Full story on BBc News

By Kelly Fiveash Published Friday 22nd February 2008 14:51 GMT
Microsoft has admitted that Windows Vista service pack one (SP1) renders useless a number of well-known third party security products.
Redmond said in a knowledge base article yesterday that due to "reliability" issues with Vista SP1, it has been forced to prevent some security products from running after the service pack is installed.
So, customers who currently have versions of Jiangmin KV Antivirus or Trend Micro's Internet Security on their Vista computers will no longer be able to use the software, which are suppose to safeguard their machines against hackers and malware, after SP1 is installed.
...

From BBC News, Business
UK orders broadband future review
The government has said it will review the future of broadband internet in the UK amid calls that it should help firms pay for installing new infrastructure. It said it wants a better understanding of how to pave the way for moving to "next generation broadband networks".
The review will be carried out by the former chief executive of telecoms firm Cable & Wireless, Francesco Caio.
An increasing number of consumers and firms are using broadband services and new, high-capacity cables are needed.
Left behind?
The review has been ordered by the Department of Business, Enterprise and...

From Computer Shopper
Tiscali expels file sharers after BPI tip off
9:14AM, Monday 18th February 2008
Tiscali has cancelled the accounts of broadband subscribers at the behest of the music industry. However, the ISP has now ripped-up the arrangement after an argument over who bears the cost of enforcement, casting doubt over the long-term prospects of voluntary deals between ISPs and the music industry. It has emerged that Tiscali, the UK's fourth largest provider, agreed last October to contact subscribers that UK music industry body, the BPI, claimed were sharing music files over P2P networks. Warning letters were sent to 21 subscribers, four of whom eventually had their accounts closed down.
The agreement with Tiscali is...

By Robin Lettice Published Wednesday 13th February 2008 11:30 GMT
Microsoft released eleven patches yesterday, with six of them meriting a critical rating.
The critical updates affect the WebDAV Mini-Redirector, Object Linking and Embedding Automation, Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office 2000, XP and 2003, and Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. They all focus on flaws in the programs that could allow remote code execution. Affected systems are those running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003.
The remaining patches, deemed merely "important", address issues in Active Directory, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol processing, Internet Information Services, and Microsoft Works 8.0 and Suite 2005....

By John Oates
Published Tuesday 12th February 2008 15:00 GMT
Officials from the European Competition Commission, accompanied by local officials, raided Intel offices in Munich and those of Dixons Store Group International in the UK today as part of an investigation into alleged illegal collusion - that Intel and retailers worked together to fix prices.
A spokesman for DSGI told the Reg: "I can confirm that officials from the EU Commission are currently conducting an inspection at our Retail Support Centre in Hemel Hempstead. This inspection relates to the ongoing investigation between Intel and AMD. We are fully cooperating with the inspection."
German retailer Metro AG was also raided by the Commission this morning.
Of...

Shareband have introduced a device that can bond multiple connections at the IP level. It requires a device at each end so you will need a supported supplier at this stage. There are two relatively unknown ISP's supporting this at this stage, although if I understand this right, only one of the lines has to be with a supported ISP. Using multiple providers is big benefit over MLPPP where all lines must be purchased from the same ISP.

Sounds like some vpn type device that routes over multiple gateways to an endpoint in the ISP's premises.
Sharedband enables a single stream of data to utilise the full aggregated upstream and downstream capacity.
Application agnostic -- able to handle applications from voice to video.
Supports multiple protocols including TCP, UDP, ICMP, PPTP over GRE, and IPSEC over UDP and TCP.
* (IPSEC over L2TP is currently under development)
Supports static and shared IP addressing with Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation...

By John Leyden
Published Friday 8th February 2008 11:58 GMT
Mozilla pushed out a new update of Firefox on Thursday that fixes ten security vulnerabilities, three of which are deemed critical.
The trio of critical patches for Firefox 2.0.0.12 variously fix vulnerabilities including web browsing history and forward navigation stealing bugs; a privilege escalation flaw that creates a possible mechanism to run cross site scripting exploits and also poses a malware injection risk; and a memory corruption bug in the popular open source browser. A full list of the flaws can be found here. The patches are being pushed out via automatic update. The Firefox...

From PC Pro, News
BT review could push up broadband prices
Wednesday 6th February 2008
A review of the way BT charges rivals for access to the local loop could lead to an increase in broadband fees. The move comes as part of its consultation with Ofcom over concerns that Openreach, the independent division BT created to ensure operators had access to its network, is not meeting financial expectations.
"Openreach is allowed a 10% return and at the moment we're not making that," says a spokesperson for BT. "We need to find a way of ensuring that we make a certain level of return, whether that's through pricing or finding new efficiencies. No specific proposals have been discussed - this is part of our ongoing consultation with Ofcom."
Analysts suggest this could...

Ofcom (the Office of Communication) is the body ultimately responsible for regulating the premium rate industry - the "industry" which gave us Richard-and-Judy-Gate. Ofcom has many responsibilities and it delegates the regulation of Premium Rate Services (PRS) to a body called PayPhonePlus (formerly "ICSTIS": Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services).

Following the widely publicized TV based premium rate scandals, Ofcom has begun to take a closer interest in PhonePayPlus's actions (and failures to act) and has, as part of this new initiative, just held a consultation on PhonePayPlus's new ("11th Edition") Code of Practice (CoP) - the document which is supposed to govern the behaviour of PRS firms.

Five responses to this consultation (four industry bodies and one individual member of the public) have just been published on the Ofcom site . The response submitted by amateur PRS expert Mike Ward, presents a damning indictment of the...

By Chris Williams
Published Monday 28th January 2008 12:28 GMT
Thousands of ex-Pipex customers have been suffering unexplained interruptions in their broadband service in recent weeks, as their new provider Tiscali stealthily works to cut costs.
People suffering a broadband outage as a result of the work are told by customer services, recently outsourced overseas, that their line is undergoing "essential engineering work". One Reg reader was initially told the downtime was BT's fault.
Top broadband watchers Thinkbroadband.com...

By James Hall Last Updated: 3:48am GMT 28/01/2008

A leading City retail analyst has predicted the death of the traditional computer shop following appalling Christmas trading statements from retailers such as PC World.
Tony Shiret, veteran retail analyst at Credit Suisse, said that the days of the “British Stupid Bloke” way of purchasing a computer – bundled together with software, accessories and insurance – are numbered.
Earlier this month, DSGi said that like-for-like sales at PC World, which it owns, plunged by 10pc over Christmas after low demand. Mr Shiret believes that the forward march of online computer retailers, plus the entry of supermarkets into the electricals sector, could be the death knell of the traditional computer store.
“Structurally, it is the end of the 'British...