Here’s another legal beta software for you. According to the Windows 7 site, the beta will be available for download at 12:00PM Pacific time later today (9th January) for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta. However, if you paid for an MSDN or Technet subscription, you may begin download the Windows 7 as an iso file now. Do note that Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

If you wanted to test Windows 7, you may install it in an empty HD Primary Partition or on a virtual machine. If you happen to get the Free Parallel Workstation deal from last time, then you may like to install Windows 7 using that because it works well with it. Visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx to begin the download.

Source: WIndows Team Blog

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Just a heads up for those who need this software. For a limited time, you may get this Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux for free ($50 value). “Parallels Workstation is an easy-to-use, easy-on-the-pocket solution that lets you run Windows, Linux and more side-by-side on a single PC without rebooting.” If you are familiar with Windows Virtual Machine, this is something like it, with a few additional features that Windows Virtual Machine did not offer. You may take an overview of the software here (Note: Use the link below to get the permanent key, this link is just an overview and you will only get a 15-days trial).

Visit http://www.parallels.com/getkey/lunarp/ and fill in the required field, then you should get the serial key in your email shortly. Note that the key you get will not be just a trial key, they will send you a legit permanent key for the software. They will also provide you the link to download the software. Cheers and wish you all a Happy New Year!

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Wooah, just been away for the past few days and when I get back…what’s this?  Security flaw in IE? Just noticed some news online and Microsoft themselves had confirmed this security hole in Internet Explorer. Here’s in an excerpt from telegraph.co.uk

The flaw allows criminal gangs to take control of people’s computers and steal their personal information when they visit websites that have been corrupted by malicious hackers. It is believed that as many 10,000 sites have been compromised since last week.

Microsoft said that it had detected attacks on machines using Internet Explorer 7, the most widely-used version of the browser, but that other versions are “potentially vulnerable”.

“We are actively investigating the vulnerability that these attacks attempt to exploit,” the firm, which also makes the Windows operating system, said in a security statement.

“We will continue to monitor the threat environment and update this advisory if this situation changes.”

If you are an IE user, in the mean time, be sure not to surf the net with Internet Explorer before you have patched your IE. According to today’s advance notification, Microsoft will provide a security patch today for IE users and a seperate patch tomorrow for IE8 beta 2 users. You may check out http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-dec.mspx for those update.

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After Youtube switched to widescreen format about a week and a half ago, it looks like they have now also launches support for HD videos. Users will be able to watch the video in HD by simply clicking on the “watch in HD” link at the bottom right of the video where the “watch in high quality” option usually appears. Note that you will not be able to watch the video in HD if the video uploaded is not HD, duh. (In another word, not every video will have the “watch in HD” option)

I did not test whether the video is truly played in HD format but you will be able to notice a big difference in the quality and resolution of the video compared to the normal resolution. Try searching for “HD” in Youtube and you should see a list of HD videos. Simply click on the “watch in HD” option, then hit the full screen video button and enjoy the crispy clear video! Of course, video loading will take longer if you do not have a high speed connection.

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This is quite a common question I encountered once in a while so I will write a short tutorial here. Firefox by default download all the files to your desktop. But you will find that after a while, your desktop will be cluttered with files if you don’t start moving them somewhere.

This is generally not a big problem because you can change the default download location for Firefox. To do this, click on “Tools” in Firefox’s menubar, then click on “Options…” Make sure you are on the “Main” section, then under the Save Files to, click on “Browse…” to select the default location for your download files. Alternatively, if you want Firefox to prompt you where to save your file every time you downloaded a file, simply select “Always ask me where to save files”.

Firefox by default remembered what you have downloaded. You may call Firefox’s download window up by selecting Tools > Downloads in the menubar or simply use the shortcut key Ctrl + J. This download window is useful if you forgot where you have downloaded your files.

Let’s say you have forgot which folder you saved a particular file to, just right click on the file you are looking for and click on “Open containing folder”, Firefox will open the folder where you’ve saved the file. Another useful thing about this download window is you can right click on a particular files you have downloaded, then click on “Go to Download page” will bring you back to the page where you have downloaded that file from.

However, some people would like to have more privacy and do not want firefox to record what files they have downloaded. Don’t worry, you can too change this option if you do not want Firefox to remember what you have downloaded. Under Tool > Options… click on “Privacy” and uncheck the option “Remember what I’ve downloaded”, then click “OK” and you are good to go.

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Just noticed this article from BBC news. The article states that 90% of visitors who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not, in fact, addicted. Compulsive gaming is a social rather than a psychological problem suggested Keith Bakker the founder and head of Europe’s first and only clinic to treat gaming addicts.

Using traditional abstinence-based treatment models the clinic has had very high success rates treating people who also show other addictive behaviours such as drug taking and excessive drinking. But Mr Bakker believes that this kind of cross-addiction affects only 10% of gamers. For the other 90% who may spend four hours a day or more playing games such as World of Warcraft, he no longer thinks addiction counselling is the way to treat these people.

“I liked gaming because people couldn’t see me, they accepted me as my online character - I could be good at something and feel part of a group.” says George, an 18-year-old gamer being treated at the clinic in Amsterdam.

“These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies,” says Mr Bakker.

But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem.

Source: BBC.co.uk

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