Microsoft has formally announced that Windows 8.1 will be available as a free update for Windows 8 clients via the Windows Store starting on Thursday, October 17, 2013 at 7am (local Trinidad and Tobago time)
You can still download and evaluate Windows 8.1 Preview at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview-download
Here’s a video from Microsoft outlining the key changes of Windows 8.1 Preview (and presumbly still in Windows 8.1)
http://youtu.be/VQb5caeSo00
For nearly 10 years, Microsoft has posted patches (software updates) to fix security flaws in various Microsoft products on the second Tuesday of each month, informally known as “Patch Tuesday”.
Read Microsoft’s Security Bulletin Summary for August 2013 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms13-aug
The August 2013 bulletin announces the availability of a “critical” Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer for versions 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 for Windows desktop clients running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, various Windows server versions and Windows RT.
Also, there is a separate “critical” update for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
The “critical” rating means that vulnerabilities exist in the aforementioned products that could allow for remote code execution without user interaction, meaning malware can be installed on your system just by by visiting a web page or opening a document file.
So run Windows Update ASAP!
Former Apple engineer Kelly Jacklin writes about how the Apple iPhone’s “Tri-tone” sound was created in the late 1990’s on his website at http://jacklinstudios.com/docs/making-of-158-marimba.html
At the time, Kelly Jacklin was trying to come up with a sound for SoundJam software (the software that would eventually evolve to become iTunes) to alert when a CD was burnt and came with several sounds (you can listen to the other sounds that weren’t chosen), including the now famous Apple Tri-tone sound.
Via GigaOM
Via iGovTT is a link to the text of the opening address to the Caribbean ICT Ministers’ Forum by the CTU President, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Technology, Jamaica.
The opening address featured:
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having an online meeting via Skype on Monday August 12, 2013 at 8pm.
Our Skype contact is trinidadtobagocomputersociety.
On the agenda are planning for upcoming meetings including planning for
Software Freedom Day 2013.
Anyone interested in Software Freedom Day and wish to help plan this event are welcome to attend.
Caribbean Telecommunications Union president Phillip Paulwell announced that Digicel has agreed to abolish voice roaming charges for users of the company’s networks when they travel in the Caribbean region from October 1, 2013.
From the Trinidad Guardian article :
“After some negotiation, Digicel has agreed as of October 1, 2013, on the abolition of voice roaming on Digicel’s network in Caricom countries. Each travelling subscriber will be treated as if he is using his local/domestic Digicel network throughout the region and therefore will be billed accordingly,” said Paulwell, who is Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.
Paulwell said negotiations would continue with Digicel for the abolition of roaming on data charges by year-end and for the removal of taxes on international calls in Jamaica and Haiti. Discussions with LIME, the region’s other major telecoms provider, on a plan for LIME to eliminate roaming charges were ongoing, said Paulwell.
“The overall aim is to abolish roaming for both voice and data, and the objective is to achieve this by year end. Those charges hinder affordable communication between Caribbean people, and as we move toward greater regional unity, we must take every opportunity to remove the barrier that keep us apart,” said Paulwell.
Today’s the last day of the The International DOTA 2 2013 Championship Tournament.
DOTA stands for Defense of the Ancients, which was a free mod for Blizzard’s “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” and the expansion “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne”), nearly 10 years ago.
In 2009, Valve (known for the Steam distribution client and the Half-Live series of games) hired “Icefrog”, the maintainer of the DOTA Warcraft III mod to create DOTA 2 built on Valve’s Steam engine. DOTA 2 was in beta for quite some time, with players needing invites to be able to download and play the game. However, DOTA 2 is now out of beta and available on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux as a free to play game.
Here’s some links with lots more DOTA 2 information:
So what is Dota? From the Wikipedia entry on Dota 2:
Dota 2 consists of session-based online multiplayer matches, in which two teams of five players attempt to destroy their opponents’ fortified strongholds. Each player controls a “Hero” character and, over the course of an individual game, focuses on improving their hero’s abilities, acquiring items, and fighting against the other team.
Dota 2 combines the real-time strategy elements of a traditional top-down perspective, while also incorporating the leveling and itemization functions of a role-playing video game. Players are pitted against each other as two factions called the “Radiant” and the “Dire”. The Radiant faction is based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire faction is based at the northeast corner. Utilizing one of six selection modes, players choose one of 102 “heroes” – strategically powerful units with special abilities, who, through combat experience, may progress to a maximum level of twenty-five. The heroes’ methods of combat are heavily influenced by their primary property, which can be strength, agility, or intelligence.
The basic setup of Dota 2 places two strongholds containing critical structures called “Ancients” at opposing ends of a geographically balanced map. These bases are connected by three main paths (referred to as lanes), which are guarded by defensive towers and groups of units commonly referred to as “creeps” which traverse their lanes, attacking enemy units and structures upon sight. Players are split into two teams, each consisting of up to five players, to compete as the primary defenders for each Ancient. The overall objective of each match is to battle through the opposing force’s defenses, and destroy the opponents’ Ancient. Because Dota 2 is highly team-oriented, players must coordinate with their teams in order to achieve victory. The towers and stronghold defenses are invulnerable to attacks, so long as the towers nearest to the enemy side still stand, and must be destroyed sequentially – a team cannot destroy the enemy’s Ancient without first destroying all towers leading up to it in any one lane.
The currency of the game is gold, which is granted steadily at a slow rate. Gold can be accumulated at a much higher rate by killing enemy units, destroying enemy towers, or killing heroes. Killing units grants gold solely to the player who killed it; killing heroes grants gold to the killer and any nearby allies; and destroying towers gives gold to all players on the team. Killing enemy creeps, heroes, and towers also provides experience, which allows the player’s hero to level up, granting access to more powerful skills and abilities. “Denying” is a feature of the game which allows players to inhibit the enemy’s ability to accumulate gold and experience by killing an allied unit or destroying an allied structure before an enemy can do so. Denying reduces the amount of experience and gold the enemy faction can receive for the kill. Allied heroes may also be denied if they are on critically low health and have a fatal spell applied to them.
Featured across the map are units referred to as “neutrals”, which are not aligned to a faction, primarily located in the forests. Located on the southeast side of the river is a boss called “Roshan” who typically requires multiple team members to be killed. Following his death, Roshan will drop a powerful item which allows for a hero to instantly respawn if they are killed.
Lifehacker posted a link to JerryRigEverything’s YouTube video showing how to open and clean out the Apple iPhone5. Attempting to repair is a challenging technical project but interesting to watch and learn, nevertheless
Read Lifehacker’s post
https://blog.twitter.com/2013/improvements-to-login-verification-photos-and-more
A new version of the Windows Sysinternals utility “Autoruns for Windows” has been released.
Version 11.70 can be downloaded from the Sysinternals site.
What is Autoruns for Windows? It is a valuable tool to look at the various locations where programs can run when Windows boots up or when you login. There are many (many!) locations where programs, including viruses, spyware and malware can surreptitiously install themselves. With Autoruns for Windows, you can view all of the programs that launch during Windows bootup and select which program you want to disable. Obviously, you have to pay attention or you may disable a critical Windows component resulting in a non-booting Windows installation
You can also use it to troubleshoot offline Windows installs, meaning you can take a suspect hard drive with an installation of Windows and disable startup entries on that hard drive.
The Defrag Tools: #5 – Autoruns and MSConfig show demonstrates Autoruns in action, at around the 13th minute.
If you interested in these type of tools, check out our All Purpose Windows troubleshooting and upgrading USB or DVD drive article.
