Tim Raines's Blog: Posts

Confirmation on my suspicions about McAfee: Today’s update appears to have caused corporate customer computers world-wide to reboot without network access!

Tim Raines — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:50:25 GMT

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It would seem today’s botched definition update sent out to corporate users of McAfee’s anti-virus software has caused Windows XP workstations to fail with DCOM errors which then causes a reboot to occur; finally, upon start up loose network connectivity. This will turn into an absolute nightmare for I.T administrators because in most cases this may mean a fix will need to be applied manually by visiting each workstation directly. For some large corporate’s the ramifications to this will be massive if they have 10,000 systems spread globally!

Apparently this all came about because the definition update struck a false positive which lead to the engine deleting a svchost.exe from the Windows directory exclaiming it was infected.

This blog post from Engadget has been following the story for most of the day: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/21/mcafee-update--shutting-down-xp-machines/

Please read when you get time. The following comment from that post about sums up my views on McAfee quite well:

Quote:
tekdemon Posted Apr 21st 2010 4:50PM
@Madcat Any IT person who's insane enough to run McAfee probably doesn't deserve to have a job. Even a fairly bloated Symantec anti-virus app can't compete with McAfee's sheer awfulness-I mean normally it just ruins your machine by making it run like utter crap but I guess McAfee finally decided to just cut to the chase and nuke your machine once and for all.

It seems that McAfee have since posted an updated version of the definition package, as well as a Fix Tool for affected customers, although it also seems the Fix Tool will need to be executed on each effected machine which might cause a problem if the I.T team can’t connect to it over the network.. Check the McAfee support site for more information and regular updates on the issue, the link about has links to McAfee also.

Category: General/Misc.;I.T Professionals;Technology News;System Administrator Tools;Windows XP;McAfee

Published: 22/04/2010 11:46 PM

Microsoft will contribute to the development of the jQuery JavaScript Library

Tim Raines — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:49:04 GMT

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Here is some promising news that came out of the MIX2010 conference last month.

Increased Support of Client Development Through the jQuery JavaScript Library - As part of Microsoft’s broad engagement with open source communities, Corporate Vice President Scott Guthrie today announced that Microsoft is investing resources to contribute to the development of the jQuery JavaScript Library to help improve the development process of standards-based Web applications. Microsoft will also work to provide better interoperability between ASP.NET and the jQuery JavaScript Library by enhancing ASP.NET so .NET developers can better incorporate jQuery capabilities. In addition, Microsoft will actively promote and distribute versions of the jQuery JavaScript Library by packaging it with popular products such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and ASP.NET MVC 2. As a first step, Microsoft will contribute a templating engine to the jQuery JavaScript Library Team to simplify Web applications.

Quote Source: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/mar10/03-16MIX10Day2PR.mspx

Related Posts:

jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX Postbacks or Partial Page Rendering with UpdatePanel’s

Category: .NET Framework 3.5;.NET Framework 4.0;.NET Framework;2010;ASP.NET AJAX;Development Tools;Internet & Web Tools;JavaScript & DHTML;jQuery;Libraries;Managed Code;Microsoft News;Programming & Development;Software Development;Visual Studio;Web Development;Web 2.0;Windows Azure Services Platform

Published: 21/04/2010 10:49 PM

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Microsoft Office 2010 RTM: The beast is out of the cage.

Tim Raines — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:52:41 GMT

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Yes you read correctly. It has been released; Microsoft Office 2010 has been finally released to manufacturing!

I have been a long time BETA participant, in fact I was using the new release right back in its alpha stages during the first Technical Preview mid-2009 (CTP). This announcement last Friday is of great excitement to me as I have been hanging out for a RTM build; especially the the new SharePoint 2010 server & Office Web Apps builds, the BETAs were good but the full releases will be a significant change in direction of corporate social networking and collaboration from now onwards. The opportunities for developers and partners has never been better!

Apparently, according to facts from the Office 2010 Engineering blog, more than 7.5 million people downloaded the public BETA of Office 2010 which is triple that of the BETA release for Office 2007. These statistics would be warming news for Microsoft; as the Office 2010 release is following on from a very successful OS launch; namely Windows 7 late last year.

If your a TechNet Subscriber like myself you can start downloading the RTM packages from April 22nd onwards, same for anyone who is a MSDN Subscriber also. Volume License customers who have Software Assurance can get the RTM builds from the new Volume Licensing Service Centre website start from April 27th and those without SA from May 1st. Retail boxes should start to the hit shelves sometime in June 2010.

Category: I.T Professionals;Microsoft Office 2010;Microsoft News;Microsoft Office Web Applications;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;SharePoint 2010;Windows 7

Published: 19/04/2010 4:49 PM

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Microsoft Office 2010 System BETA’s Released!

Tim Raines — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:51:45 GMT

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Most Microsoft announcements get me excited, this one is no exception. Those who know me would also know my keen love for anything Microsoft and when big announcements are made usually I get carried away with all the news!

As a CTP user for the very first limited release of the Office 2010 suite I am now even more excited that the time has come for the first public BETA. Microsoft announced yesterday (16-NOV-09) that the first public BETA of Office 2010 is now out for all TechNet and MSDN Subscribers. Microsoft are still saying that public availability will be sometime in November. I would assume PDC2009 will feature many of the new products in the 2010 suite, including a developers look into the power of SharePoint 2010!

What is more exciting is that SharePoint Server 2010 is now out! I can’t wait to jump in and start working with v4 of SharePoint (downloading as I type), from what I have seen this product will take us into the next decade of internet experiences beyond what we can do today in terms of social networking, information sharing and collaboration in the enterprise or out on the public internet.

I have also just downloaded the BETA of Office 2010 Web Applications; for those who don’t know what these are, basically it’s the Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel PowerPoint etc..) but sold as Web Applications that get installed either into the web servers on-premise (for enterprise customers) or used via Windows Live for SMB’s and Consumers. This offering is again a very exciting development. Some may have seen/used the Google Docs offering. Microsoft are selling something similar to this .. but a lot better in the sense that the applications are identical in most ways to what we use on our desktops. This will mean Office can be extended to more users in more places!

Hopefully I can get some screen dumps of Office 2010 Web Apps along with a lot of the other BETA’s out yesterday onto my Blog so you can see what I am talking about.

I can’t wait to jump in on these new applications!

Category: 2010;Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft Office 2010;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Microsoft Office Web Applications;Programming & Development;Software plus Services;SharePoint 2010;Public BETA;Web 2.0;Web Development;Technology News;Windows Live;Windows 7;Windows SharePoint Services 4.0;Windows Server 2008;Windows Mobile

Published: 17/11/2009 1:51 AM

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Office SharePoint Designer 2007 – Now Free Download

Tim Raines — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:45:00 GMT

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Here is some old news, though I only just discovered this yesterday; apparently Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 has been released as a free download since April 1st this year (2009).

SharePoint has been such a successful product and platform for Microsoft that it now understands the need to expand the tools out to those who may not have had access to them in the past, in the hope that it will enable more customers and partners to continue developing with the SharePoint Platform right into the next release due in the first half of 2010.

Next year we will see SharePoint Designer 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 which I believe will significantly step-up the way we work, communicate and leverage existing enterprise resources in the future. From what I gathered after watching Ray Ozzie’s keynote at the 2009 PDC, it is Microsoft’s goal to provide a seamless set of tools to help developers work between tools without the need to re-create projects in each. Visual Studio 2010 will be at the heart of this new wave.

Here is the Free Download Link for Office SharePoint Designer 2007:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepointdesigner/HA103607611033.aspx

Category: 2010;Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft Office 2010;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Microsoft Partners;SharePoint 2010;Programming & Development;Free Software;Development Tools;I.T Professionals;Windows SharePoint Services 3.0;Web Development;Web 2.0;Visual Studio;Managed Code;BETA News;PDC 2009

Published: 1/12/2009 12:44 PM

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Apple, Google, Twitter and others; Closed Ecosystems and what impact it has on End-Users

Tim Raines — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 05:52:19 GMT

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For many years now I have tried to voice my frustrations with the way in which big software and social networking giants conduct business and continue to develop their business models with direction to closed systems. The effect of closed-systems results in more control over the end-user and the consumer has little knowledge about the real true underlying goals of the service provider or software company.

For a long time I have been very critical of companies such as Google and Apple about the way in which they participate in the open web-ecosystem that is the “Internet”; further more the way in which they treat the very people who help them build there platforms out to the scale they are today, the developers. Some may remember how heavily scrutinised Microsoft were back in the dawn of the Web many years ago, simply because they tried to monopolise the web-browser market in a bid to get all consumers into there relatively closed platforms at that time, although you can argue that from very early on, Microsoft have always had a very rich developer-partner ecosystem operating which has been directly related to there success in the industry. That ecosystem was always developer friendly from day one, and always encouraged the integration of third-party devices and services.

This article summarises my views on the issue, and confirms my thoughts on what to expect in the future.. (As much as I hope that we don’t continue down this path; the fact is the ball is rolling now, it may be very difficult to stop.)

http://digital.venturebeat.com/2010/04/14/why-platforms-like-iphone-and-twitter-are-becoming-control-freaks/

Now I may point out I don’t necessarily agree completely with the writers concluding statements I will beg to differ on that the overall facts expressed in the article are facts I have been saying for quiet some time, what do you think?

Category: Apple News & Goodies;General/Misc.;Google News;Web Development;Programming & Development;Web 2.0

Published: 18/04/2010 3:52 PM

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Multiple Exchange Server Accounts now supported in Outlook 2010

Tim Raines — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:37:19 GMT

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It’s been a long while since my last blog post; unfortunately their has just been no time to write anything! In fact this is my first post for 2010, happy New Year everyone! (better late than never!).

As the title of this post states; a long awaited feature which I have just realised exists in the new Outlook 2010 release is the ability to have multiple Exchange Server Accounts in the same Outlook profile. You might say, “but that’s not new, I could do that before” well true; but remember Outlook previously could only open “delegated” mailboxes from the same Exchange Server organisation. Users could configure Outlook to open other shared mailboxes which gave them the ability to “Send on behalf of” as well as limited folder management and mail items management functionality.

Now with Outlook 2010, you can have individual fully functional access for up-to 3 Exchange Server mailboxes under the one Outlook profile, this means the mailboxes can be from different Exchange Organisations or complete separate forests without the need to have any partnerships at the server level. This long awaited feature will be welcomed by many users as more and more companies adopt Exchange Server and rely on email as a primary means of communication in today’s businesses.

Now all I am waiting for is similar functionality to happen on the phone, and then I will be completely satisfied. Maybe Windows Mobile 7.0 will open up some light on this feature?!

I first got word on this feature from the Official Outlook Product Team’s blog, keep up to date with Outlook 2010 news by reading their blog.

Category: 2010;Microsoft Office 2010;Microsoft Office Web Applications;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft News;Public BETA;Small Business;Technology News;Technology Preview;Exchange Server;Microsoft Outlook

Published: 3/03/2010 12:37 AM

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SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Windows SharePoint Services 4.0)

Tim Raines — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:07:57 GMT

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As the title suggests. For those who may have been wondering what this new Foundation 2010 release of SharePoint Server was; I can confirm to you that it is the next release of what we previously referred to as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Microsoft have re-labelled the v4.0 release and now refers to it as SharePoint Foundation 2010. The new name better describes what the version actually is, the feature set limitations are much like the WSS 3.0 release in that it gives smaller organisations a good base to start building on their SharePoint investments leaving out the more enterprise-class features .. it will still ship free of charge, free meaning that you have valid Windows Server CALs for each user who will access the SharePoint sites. You can get the BETA now .. or wait till first half of next year to get the full release.

I wonder if Microsoft will do a roll-up update for Windows Server 2008 R2 once SharePoint Foundation 2010 goes RTM, as Windows Server 2008 currently has WSS 3.0 Roles built-in, and I doubt a new server release will be coming any time in the near future; as we have just had one now? Will have to wait and see.

It’s also worth pointing out that if your looking to offer the Office 2010 Web Applications to your users, you will be delighted to know that you do not need to purchase SharePoint Server 2010 licenses to do so, the Office Web Apps will work on the SharePoint Foundation Server. (The licensing requirements would still require that you have the appropriate Windows Server CALs and of course the correct CALs for Office Web Applications, maybe SQL Server depending on how you rolled out your SharePoint farm).

Category: SharePoint 2010;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Office 2010;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Microsoft Office Web Applications;Windows 7;Web Development;Web 2.0;Small Business;Public BETA;Windows SharePoint Services 4.0;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Server 2008;I.T Professionals;2010;Free Software;SharePoint Foundation 2010

Published: 4/12/2009 1:07 PM

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Direct Factory Outlet’s (DFO) Website got Hacked!

Tim Raines — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:24:48 GMT

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Well I was going to leave this one go, and not post anything on it.. but since it hasn’t really gained much media attention around the internet space other than a couple of posts on the Whirlpool forums, I decided to make some comments.

The background: DFO is a business that owns/operates many large retail shopping complexes across Australia. Competitor to body corporate; Westfield.

Over the weekend this was pointed out to me by Lauren (my girlfriend) after she was having trouble browsing the DFO website. Instead some strange page loaded with plain text exclaiming the details of the defacer who had just destroy the whole site; Afraid that maybe something had infected her computer I quickly assured her that it was there website not her computer with the problem.

The reason I decided to write this blog post was because I find it interesting that for the most part of the weekend/early Monday, all the DFO sites were down, and even worse; the page which was uploaded over the DFO’s actual site still remained. It would seem the web hosting company; Diskman.net has been hit hard, as I find other domains hosted by them were also destroyed including their own website. I bet DFO are furious, but yet again it still amazes me a company of such size will resort to cheap crappy web systems, all to save a few bucks. Fact is; this type of attack can happen to anyone who operates a web site. More commonly sites who use free widely available web applications such as Joomla! for example.

These attackers know these systems as well as they know the keys on their keyboards. They will break these sites for many reasons, some just do it to show the developers of these systems what backdoors exist in the code or where the vulnerabilities are. I do not endorse these attacks in anyway; and besides that, the activity is actually a criminal offence, but it’s like everything; you wouldn’t leave your store unlocked out of business hours? So why would leave your internet presence unlocked and run the risk of these attacks occurring to you?

I am happy to go into further discussion on web site defacement and any questions you might have with security on the internet regarding setting up websites etc. Just leave a comment or question.

Some Screen dumps from DFO’s sites over the weekend (click to enlarge):

Category: Free Software;Internet & Web Tools;General/Misc.;Programming & Development;Personal & Friends;Small Business;Web Development;Web 2.0;Technology News;Tim & Lauren

Published: 10/11/2009 12:24 AM

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Unauthorized 401.1 Exception when calling Web Services in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Tim Raines — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:24:44 GMT

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This post is a small reminder to myself for the next time I may run into this problem when working with WSS 3.0 Web Services interface. Hopefully it might also save someone else a huge amount of time if they have a similar problem (A lot of time was wasted for me until I finally found the answer, which turned out to be not so obvious).

I had developed a web application which basically interfaces the Lists service in Windows SharePoint Services using a standard SOAP call. It worked well for ages, and then all of a sudden it started to throw a Web Exception when the application went to talk to SharePoint. Due to the nature of the Exception, one would think the problem is some what related to Security.. of course this caused me to spend hours on checking what might have changed from a security context in the network which might have caused the application to break.

Until I discovered that the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 had a small security change in it. Small enough to miss, big enough to cause an application to break!! .. After checking the date which the SP1 was installed on the server lead me to believe this is what broke the Web Services calls. Problems were first reported at the same time as this Service Pack was loaded.

So what changed? Well according to Microsoft, a Loopback check was implemented in the .NET 3.5 SP1 update which will cause a web server to perform a Loopback lookup when performing web service calls; I guess in a security sense this might be smart, so applications can’t masquerade themselves from unknown sources. Basically it checks to see if the web servers NETBIOS name matches the host header from the web application. Great idea when applications run as the server name, or when a server hosts a single web site with an unassigned host header value (SharePoint configures this way out of the box). But in my case the Web Application I wrote ran as an alias on a Front-End web server that hosted multiple web applications. This Loopback check is not something specific to SharePoint, but rather a check IIS will do for all applications.

If your running WSS 3.0 in a farm configuration with load balancing configured then this will mean you also will likely experience the same dramas with SOAP Calls. Keep in mind that all front-end web servers who have the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed will need to have this fix applied as you can not be sure which one will serve the Web Service call/request from your Application (in Load Balanced environments).

Web Exception that I was getting from my Application:

Type: WebException, Exception Message: The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.

Solution:

The fix is simple; disable this new loopback check introduced in .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1.

Follow the methods in this Microsoft KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

Category: .NET Framework 3.5;Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Programming & Development;Raines Internet Solutions;Software Development;Web Development;Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Published: 24/10/2009 2:24 PM

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Be Assured .. Free can sometimes mean good value! – Microsoft Security Essentials

Tim Raines — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:04:48 GMT

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I have already blogged on the new Anti-Malware offering from Microsoft which recently was released for FREE for genuine Windows customers; Microsoft Security Essentials has certainly proven itself in my books.

I’ll start by making the comment which I think most people in my line of work would say; if it’s free and it’s security software be careful. I don’t believe this is the case with the Security Essentials product. The new anti-malware software from Microsoft is small in size, in fact it actually installs at roughly a total of 11mb in size. So the footprint is small on the hard-drive; but so is the run-time; memory consumption is next to nothing on idle – during the first Quick Scan after install its GUI process was only consuming 3mb of RAM on my notebook. Many would know the traits of current security products out on the market from well known vendors and how bad they can perform on even high spec machines let alone basic hardware, not to mention the annoying notifications for end-users! Microsoft Security Essentials run’s so quiet you forget you installed it, or that’s even running.

I feel; like others have said that we are at a point now with our ‘digital-internet-enabled’ lifestyles that a OS vendor should really ship a security product with their operating system at no extra charge to the customer. Microsoft attempted to do that with Windows Vista where we saw the introduction of Windows Defender built-in. Other performance benefits that Microsoft Security Essentials gives consumers is that it has been build for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) architectures. Microsoft have built a version for Windows XP and Windows Vista, with of course support natively on Windows 7.

The only criticism I could have on the product is that you cannot manage it (from a Server or using a GPO), but having said that .. I know why. So I don’t expect to see that becoming a feature of the product and considering the step-up or parent product for organisations who out-grow Security Essentials being Microsoft Forefront Security.

Read this blog post, if your still are not convinced; A security expert talking about his testing experiences with the software.

Category: Anti-Virus Tools;Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;Free Software;Microsoft News;Microsoft Security Essentials;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Personal & Friends;Small Business;Technology News;Windows 7;Windows XP;Windows Vista;Windows Update;Windows Live;Windows Live OneCare

Published: 21/10/2009 10:04 PM

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jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX Postbacks or Partial Page Rendering with UpdatePanel’s

Tim Raines — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:16:50 GMT

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Recently I was working on a web application that made use of the new jQuery library for client-side UI enhancements. While being fairly new at working with ASP.NET’s AJAX I felt pretty confident that I would be able to make it all work to my advantage considering I have a good understanding/experience level with ASP.NET server-side and working with JavaScript and DHTML on the client-side in the past. ASP.NET AJAX is basically just the more intelligent way to get the best of both worlds; server-side but with the normal client-side dynamics.

Anyway enough of my ramble. The problem I faced was when it came to using the jQuery library with an UpdatePanel; UpdatePanel’s are server-side controls which allow you to process server-side code dynamically without reloading a page, the process is normally referred to Partial Page Rendering.

Now when I attach my code to a event handler so that it would fire in real-time within the UpdatePanel it would cause a Postback to occur. This is what I wanted as the page’s ViewState needed to be updated among other things. The problem occurred when the first Postback occurred, after this my jQuery library was no longer attaching itself back to the form controls. I lost my ability to fire any other functions from jQuery.

In short I believe according to what I read about this issue, is that due to the way ASP.NET AJAX wires up its JavaScript for partial page rendering the OnLoad(); function is not re-executed and therefore any jQuery library’s will not re-initialise. jQuery documents this limitation on their reference guide. So what was my solution, well it was simple. Fortunately ASP.NET AJAX lets you attach additional OnLoad code for further processing. The best part is that it re-initialises on every Postback! Other solutions I found were talking about re-writing a OnLoad(); function which was inside the UpdatePanel but the limitation there is that JavaScript on the client-side uses the last occurrence of OnLoad(); and discards the previous occurrences thus is no good and isn’t as dynamic as my solution.

Sys.Application.add_load(funNewOnLoad);
function funNewOnLoad()
{
   // Code here will execute onLoad plus on every UpdatePanel postback.
}

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Web 2.0;Raines Internet Solutions;Web Development;ASP.NET AJAX;.NET Framework 3.5;jQuery;JavaScript & DHTML;Programming & Development;Code Snippets

Published: 5/10/2009 8:16 AM

Free Anti-Virus Software.. Microsoft Security Essentials now available!

Tim Raines — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:34:28 GMT

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Well, it’s been a bit of a wait for us Australian’s but we now have access to the Microsoft Security Essentials software. This is great news for everyone.

You may remember back not so long ago when Microsoft released the Microsoft Anti-Spyware BETA then that package transformed into Windows Defender upon full release.
Now days Defender is a stock standard option in Windows Vista operating systems and Windows 7 as well. This is all completely free protection which is trusted and proven.
Free of course when you run a genuine copy of Windows.

So now this new release which during it’s BETA was only available to US and Canada markets is fully available to everyone here in Australia. You can download it today for FREE by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Notes for those who are interested in Downloading:

It’s a known general practice not to have more than one type of Anti-Virus software application installed at the same time. If you are currently using another product please remove this and reboot your system before loading on the Microsoft Security Essentials product.
If you are/were a Windows Live OneCare user previously, please be aware that Windows Live OneCare is now replaced by Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft have stated on the OneCare web site that it plans to support and see-out any existing subscriptions but is not accepting any new orders. This means you would now go and download Security Essentials instead.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a proven product than uses the same updates, definitions and engines to its parent product from Microsoft called Microsoft Forefront Security. If you haven’t heard of this product before that’s because it’s only commonly used in large-scale enterprise networks. It’s been engineered for 500-5000+ computer networks so I.T teams can be assured there systems are protected and secure. This should be enough assurance that the Microsoft Security Essentials product will be suitable for consumer markets.

Category: Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft News;Technology News;Small Business;Windows Live OneCare;Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;Microsoft Security Essentials;Anti-Virus Tools;Free Software

Published: 4/10/2009 8:34 PM

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Gorilla Radio – Hot new Dance Radio Station in Sydney!

Tim Raines — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:15:04 GMT

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Gorilla is a new radio station which I only just discovered today (I’m from Melbourne so if your from Sydney reading this don’t bag me) .. I get the feeling it hasn’t been in existence too long as it boasts about its broadcast only being available in the new Digital radio market.

Thanks to my good friend Mikey G .. well ok.. I like reading his very informative blog (onthemike) .. link is also on the left <= I found out that he is back into radio doing a breakfast show on Gorilla. 6am – 9 daily.

Couple of things I have notice so far, because I have been tunned in for most of the day already through their internet stream is that;

The audio quality seriously rocks
They play only the best Dance music in the country! Nothing else! (and yes it’s new skool dance and old skool so it looks after everyone
So far zero ad’s!! How do they make money? Who cares.. solid music is what we want!
Mostly Full Club mixes cut especially for Radio. Non of these shit radio mixes that commercial songs get chopped into.

So you want to go check it out .. head onto http://www.gorillasuperdigi.com/index.html and locate the Listen Live link in the top menu. Make sure you install their small plug-in so that you get the good quality audio stream. It’s all explained on the page .. should be easy to do!

Sorry to Gorilla for stealing some of your graphic’s from your site if you want me to remove them I can.. but I am just trying to promote your station not steal your brand.

Category: Entertainment;Music & Lifestyle;Pioneer Pro DJ;Personal & Friends;Tim & Lauren;General/Misc.;Digital Radio;Mike Goldman;Mikey G

Published: 2/10/2009 8:15 PM

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Solution: Windows Update Error 80072EFD on Windows Vista SP1 and SP2

Tim Raines — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:28:56 GMT

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Here is a solution for anyone who might be having trouble with Windows Update on Windows Vista systems with either no service pack, or Service Pack 1 and/or 2.

I will assume you have already tried the standard troubleshooting steps recommended by Microsoft before following this procedure. If you haven’t done this please read the support article from Microsoft first: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-AU/help/93b6ab71-8b21-4b50-b40e-abb80eba29271033.mspx

Basically this error is due to a connection issue with the Windows Update servers at Microsoft. You could also experience the same issue when your workstations point to a internal Windows Update Server (WSUS) either on your LAN or somewhere in your WAN. From the above support article you will have gathered that the issue commonly is caused by a firewall or anti-virus / malware protection software program blocking connections to the Windows Update Server.

This is useful to know but might not necessarily help you solve the problem. So what will? You may/may not be aware that Windows will allow you to set a different proxy server for Windows Updates which is non-related to the computers Internet Explorer Proxy settings. From what I gather it’s not all that well documented, though it gets a mention on the TechNet library it’s one of those I.T Pro settings that you would script for rather than something a general user would set in the GUI. Commonly this setting might become one of the attack points for a Malware/Trojan to modify which stops your system from getting Windows Updates. Sneaky I know!! ..

Solution to Reset this Proxy Server (Removal):

Open up a new Command window, make sure you run it “As an Administrator”. I do this by opening Start Menu in the search box I type CMD and then Right Click the CMD.exe and click “Run as Administrator”.
At the command-line run these two commands:

netsh winhttp show proxy
netsh winhttp reset proxy

A Restart of your computer might be necessary. If it is a server you can just restart the appropriate network/windows update services to avoid a full reboot.

Notes: The first command will show you if a Proxy Server is set. The second command will reset the Proxy Server setting back to “Direct Access mode” which will allow Windows Updates to start working again. The picture attached to this post shows a Computer without the proxy server set. Yours should look like this for Windows Update to work.

Category: I.T Professionals;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Microsoft Partners;Personal & Friends;Raines Internet Solutions;Small Business;System Administrator Tools;Windows Vista;Windows Update

Published: 2/10/2009 2:28 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/77/image_3_0CF41A4C.png

How to Connect a Windows 7 Workstation to Windows SBS 2008

Tim Raines — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:48:35 GMT

Body:

Just a quick post on a topic which I am sure some will face once Windows 7 becomes main stream later this month. I would like to think Microsoft will issue a official fix for SBS 2008 once Windows 7 ships to the public but we'll wait and see; I won't get my hopes up too soon!

Issue: When using the Client Connect Wizard to join a new workstation to your SBS 2008 domain you'll notice it will stop and give an error "This computer does not meet the maximum operating system requirements for running client setup".

Following a guide by the SBS 2008 Team will help you get over this issue. Make sure you follow it carefully as a few changes to a GPO will need to be made that gives one of your computer policies support for Windows 7. Editing incorrectly will cause GPO errors which are not fun.

Notes: Before you begin, the below link explain's editing the GP.xml with Administrative rights. If you haven't edited config files in this way before then the way to do it is locate Notepad from the Start Menu on your server, right click and select "Run as Administrator". Then from inside notepad open the file you wish to edit.

(Also will mention that the below link refers to Windows 7 BETA and the RC releases, I can confirm the fix does work on Windows 7 RTM builds and will in turn work on the first public release on Oct 22nd later this month.)

Read: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/02/06/using-windows-7-beta-with-sbs-2008.aspx

Category: 2008;I.T Professionals;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Microsoft Partners;RTM;Small Business;Windows 7;Raines Internet Solutions

Published: 1/10/2009 12:33 PM

Pioneer CDJ-2000

Tim Raines — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:30:47 GMT

Body:

I am very excited to share with everyone the announcement made today by Pioneer.

Pioneer have announced there new range of advanced CDJ Disc Players are from what I understand going to be available very soon!

The official announcement can be read here:

http://www.pioneer.com.au/sitecore/content/Content%20Data/Pioneer%20News/Latest%20News/Pioneer%20announces%20new%20DJ%20weaponry%20with%20CDJ-2000.aspx

The new CDJ-2000 looks to be much waited unit as a lot of the new features are what many DJ’s have been waiting for all in one single player. The CDJ-2000 will be the next model following on from the very popular/successful CDJ-1000MK3. The CDJ-1000MK3 unit has proven itself right through the industry over many years.

CDJ-2000 KEY FEATURES (from Pioneer’s Australia web site)

Fully compatible with a wide range of media formats
Besides regular audio CDs (and MP3 data CDs and DVDs) the CDJs can play music files that have been copied to SD memory cards and USB storage devices, such as flash memory and hard disk drives. Compatible file formats are MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF (16/24-bit). Files on Tonium’s Pacemaker*1 can also be played when connected as a storage device via USB.

rekordbox™ database management software for DJs
The idea behind ‘Prepare & Perform’ is that rekordbox™ works in harmony with DJs, allowing them to analyse, arrange, edit and export their music and data to digital media before their performance.

Put simply, rekordbox™ offers an alternative to taking a laptop to the club. Not only does it function like a database for DJs (and is compatible with the leading music database management software through a bridge feature) but it also offers many more creative opportunities.

DJs can prepare cue points, loops and Hot Cues in advance of their show. They can manage music files by editing tag information and artwork, while rekordbox™ analyses such track information as BPM and wave data.

DJs can also edit beat grids, which utilise the CDJ-2000’s new Quantize performance features, so, as an option, all cue points and loops can be set perfectly on-beat every time.

In addition, users can create, edit and manage play lists in rekordbox™ and the CDJ-2000 creates a history play list on your storage device of every track played for review when you next sync with rekordbox™.

Huge full-colour display screen leads the market
A bright, elevated 6.1-inch LCD enables DJs to acquire all information at a glance in the dark. And it’s not just about browsing directly though text, because artwork can also be displayed.
Thanks to a combination of the GUI (graphical user interface) and a rotary selector, track browsing/selection is made super-quick and easy. Plus, for on-the-fly programming, tag lists can be created using the dedicated Tag button.

Meanwhile, that all-important wave data is displayed with improved precision, so that high/low amplitude components can be grasped in the greatest detail to date.

Industry-first Needle Search™/Needle Drop for speedy searches and previews
This industry first reproduces digitally the action of needle dropping on vinyl. Needle Search™ lets you instantaneously preview music at any chosen point with pinpoint accuracy. Simply slide a finger along the Needle Drop pad while listening to the stuttered preview and checking the wave display to locate peaks and troughs.

This tactile ribbon controller can also be used to conduct keyword searches.

Industry-first Pro DJ Link
For the very first time, DJs can connect up to four CDJ-2000s and rekordbox™ by LAN connection and instantly share music and data between the players. That’s one LAN hub, one USB storage device or SD memory card, and countless creative possibilities – multi-directionally reinforced.

Improved quality audio output circuit with Wolfson DAC processor
A high-performance Wolfson DAC processor allows audio to be reproduced with a lush analogue feel. Great news for audiophiles is the better signal-to-noise ratio, giving a massive improvement on the CDJ-1000MK3 processor, and a new hybrid operation amplifier circuitry that also minimises noise. The result is a clear, transparent sound that is faithful to the original.

Advanced connectivity with 24-bit/48 kHz sound card, HID and MIDI control via USB
The CDJ-2000 has a built-in sound card so no extra interface or unnecessary rewiring is required and connection is possible by using only one USB cable.

Information can be output as MIDI to software and other MIDI devices via USB. The player can also be used as a MIDI controller, but HID control offers superior interfacing with software, beating MIDI with speed, audio/visual streaming and two-way information on displays.

Consequently, the player can easily, precisely and natively control such DVS systems as Serato’s Scratch Live*2, Native Instrument’s Traktor*3 series and MixVibes CROSS*4 – without any need for time-coded discs.

Quantized beat loop for perfectly synced cue points, loops and Hot Cues
After music files have been analysed with rekordbox™, the Quantize function automatically corrects and syncs the beat during a manual loop or real-time cue in.

This even works if the in/out point is off beat. There is also a convenient auto one-touch four-beat loop onboard, if required. And thanks to a new 0.5 frame step, there’s twice the resolution for setting even more precise cue and loop points.

An extra three Hot Cue Banks, available via the rekordbox™ play list
Aside from the three Hot Cue buttons on the CDJ-2000 player itself, there are also three Hot Cue Banks to be found in the rekordbox™ play list.

This provides users with an abundance of Hot Cues to further extend the editing opportunities.

Advanced new Jog for smooth operability and greater feeling adjustment
The all-new club conscious Jog dial is illuminated in four different places. It’s also much quieter and smoother in operation, and has a far wider tension range when compared to the CDJ-1000MK3.

Category: General/Misc.;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Technology News;Entertainment;Pioneer Pro DJ;CDJ-2000

Published: 17/09/2009 6:30 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/75/CDJ2000_3_27FF3746.jpg

Top 12 FREE Stock Graphics/Art and Photo Sites for your Design Projects

Tim Raines — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:18:49 GMT

Body:

I love my stock photo sites, they are a handy resource when working on design projects of any size!

Here is a article which summarises 12 of the best free websites available at the moment, I already use a few of these but there were some new ones I hadn’t seen before.. so I thought it would be nice to share the link with you. Hope it comes in handy for those who do design work.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/12-essential-sites-for-great-free-photos-624818

Category: Graphic Design & Artwork;Personal & Friends;Raines Internet Solutions;Music & Lifestyle;Web 2.0

Published: 14/08/2009 1:18 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/74/mspaint_3_1F663999.png

Apple Bootcamp Windows Drivers for Windows 7 RTM

Tim Raines — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:57:15 GMT

Body:

I have had a bit of a hard time trying to get my MacBook working with the final Windows 7 RTM Build, which was released last week. As support is limited I accept it was likely going to be difficult to locate a solution to my issues, which really were surrounding the Apple Drivers that are provided for use in a Bootcamp deployment.

Windows 7 RTM has wide built-in hardware support both for x86 and x64 bit builds, after the upgrade all seemed well. I had a functioning machine and generally it was usable. Having said that there were some caveats which stopped things like Brightness controls and Volume controls on the keyboard from working, Bluetooth and Apple iSight also were not functioning correctly. The Trackpad was the other device I noticed which also had some faults around finger gestures.

So I searched the web for a fix, a lot of people seem to be having the issue and claiming their is no fix; the response I got in most cases was to wait until a date closer to October 22nd or maybe even after September at least when Apple releases OSX Snow Leopard 10.6 for an updated driver set with Bootcamp 3.0. Currently Apple are not officially supporting Windows 7 RTM, nor the RC or BETA builds. Bootcamp 3.0 is the official milestone at which Apple will support Windows 7.

After learning that I then thought maybe I can somehow get the original drivers to work even though Windows 7 RTM wasn’t allowing the installer to work. I was able to use a MSI editor to remove the flag in the Bootcamp.msi which was performing an OS Check. Removing this flag from the MSI seems to have solved the issue. The installer operated as normal. I did however elevate to Run As Administrator which was needed to ensure it injected the files into the right system directories.

For those who are interested, I removed the "LaunchCondition" flag from the Bootcamp MSI.

Attached to this post is the modified Installer files which will work on Windows 7 RTM x86 (32-bit). These drivers are identified as Bootcamp v2.1 in the installer for those who are wondering which version I used. I took them from the original OSX 10.5 DVD.

Download Bootcamp Driver Pack for Windows 7 RTM
Sorry for the multipart file, I had a 50mb per file limitation!

Please note I will not be held liable for anything that happens after using the modified driver pack, nor will support the usage of the driver pack. The driver pack is “un-official” and is a quick fix until “official” support is provided by Apple after Snow Leopard is available. Your welcome to leave comments on my blog if you have any questions, I will help where possible. But you must use at your own risk.

Category: Apple News & Goodies;Windows 7;RTM;Bootcamp;Windows Drivers;MacBook;iMac

Published: 11/08/2009 2:57 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/73/ApplePackageIcon_3_779DA67F.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/73/BootCampIcon_3_779DA67F.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/73/laptop_3_563690EF.png

Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework – Get a head-start with Windows 7 Development

Tim Raines — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:47:14 GMT

Body:

This is a nice new pack which I came across today, it contains all the tools, API’s, Libraries, Controls and Guides you will ever need to start working with Managed Code in Windows 7 Applications. There is loads of stuff in the pack, including updated Libraries and Controls for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

If you want to extend or update your application to support some of the nice nifty new features of Windows 7; such as Jump Lists or New Dialog’s then this code pack will be your next best friend.

Go Check out: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack for full details on what’s included and for a Download Link.

Another nice article worth reading which might clear up any development questions you might already have/ will have about Windows 7 is this one: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Top10TipsWorkingDevelopersShouldKnowAboutWindows7.aspx

Category: Software Development;RTM;Windows Vista;Windows XP;Windows 7;.NET Framework;Managed Code;Visual Studio;API;Libraries;Code Pack;Development Tools

Published: 10/08/2009 3:47 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/72/netlogo_3_63112F3F.jpg

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Tim Raines — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:15:30 GMT

Body:

Well those who know me, would also know that big software launches get me weirdly excited! .. Yes to some, strange.. I know. Having said that; when a software launch from our friends in Redmond, USA is announced; there is generally even more to get excited about. Microsoft’s next release of the Office product line, Office 2010 is no exception. I think I could categorically say that this software launch will have to be one of the biggest we will have seen to-date.

Fortunately for me, I have been given the chance to play a testing role in the Technical Preview of Office 2010 which was launched mid July and slowly gaining pace as more invites go out. Like many who have been accepted into the Technical Preview program, we will get a chance to test and provide feedback on how good/bad features and tools in the Office 2010 suite are. This information will help Microsoft ensure that the Q1 2010 release will be ready to ship for the general public use/purchase.

I am really excited about what I have seen so far and look forward to sharing my experience/comments on my blog with readers as I get to test out the 2010 release.

One other major software release I am particularly excited about is the new SharePoint 2010. From what I have seen in some sneak peaks, I am lost for words on what to say! All I can say is that it will be a software platform that seriously raises the bar in Enterprise Collaboration and Information Management. Hopefully I can post more on SharePoint 2010 soon.

Category: Microsoft News;I.T Professionals;Technology News;Technology Preview;SaaS;Software plus Services;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Office 2010;SharePoint 2010;Windows SharePoint Services 4.0;Microsoft Office Web Applications;2010;Windows 7;Windows Vista

Published: 8/08/2009 1:15 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/71/Office2010TechPreviewLogo_3_15FD108A.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/71/SharePoint2010Logo_2_15FD108A.png
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/71/SharePoint2010Logo_thumb_010B8E17.png

Windows 7 RTM – Important Dates for IT Pros

Tim Raines — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:30:48 GMT

Body:

Finally the wait is over for many eager IT Professionals and Partners who have been busily testing Microsoft’s next version of the Windows operating system; Windows 7.

Here is the important dates that surround the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7. Keep in mind standard retail customers have been currently able to pre-order Windows 7 at a discounted rate and they will be able to grab it off the shelf after 22nd October 2009.

These dates are really aimed at IT Professionals, OEM Partners, System Builders, Developers, Volume License holders and all other Partners.

Shortly after RTM is released, IT Professionals will be able to grab Windows 7 from the Springboard Series site, which focuses on IT workers.

Independent software and hardware vendor partners (ISVs), developers with Microsoft Developers Network Subscriptions, and IT professionals with TechNet Subscriptions will get first pick on Windows RTM on Aug. 6th.

Twenty-four hours later, Volume License Customers with a Software Assurance license will be able to download Windows 7 in English, and other languages a few weeks later. Volume License customers without a SA License will have to wait until Sept. 1st to buy a version.

Microsoft Partner Program Gold Members will have to wait until Aug. 16th to download Windows 7 RTM in English. Remaining languages will not be available until Oct. 1st.

Even further out on the calendar are Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers, who can't tap into the English version of the RTM until Aug. 23rd.

Category: Microsoft Partners;I.T Professionals;Microsoft News;Technology News;Windows 7;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;RTM

Published: 23/07/2009 9:30 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/70/Windows7_3_1DBFD3C6.png

How To Open/Mount & Modify/Edit Files in a WIM Image

Tim Raines — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:59:29 GMT

Body:

Here’s something cool for those who use or are interested in the Windows Deployment Service (WDS). If you have ever needed to quickly edit a file or add/delete files in your image but found it time consuming because you needed to deploy the image first, make the changes and re-capture again, for small file change possibly a local script?.. then your going to hate me for what I am about to say!

Firstly go get a copy of the Windows AIK (Automated Installation Kit) – Version 6.x is the latest release and is needed for WIM and Vista based deployments. Its a fairly big download, you will have time for a coffee or 5 if your on a slow link. Go here for download link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&DisplayLang=en
Install the Windows AIK onto your “Deployment Server” or preferably your Tech/Admin PC from which you manage the network on.
It will help if you already have some prior knowledge on the processes in which to capture/build WIM images and what the difference is between a Boot Image and a Install Image is. TechNet has heaps of documentation for the Windows AIK and WDS. Read up on it before doing anything more. (I have found the documentation to be better now than the early day’s when WDS was first released.
Read this article which covers the ImageX commands to use on the computer which you installed the Windows AIK. This will enable you to mount your existing WIM image as a folder on your management computer so that you can have full control to manipulate the files. The TechNet article with ImageX mount commands: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766067.aspx

Notes / Tips:

Example Command: imagex /mountrw e:\Images\VistaSP1-32bit.wim 1 c:\Mounted-Images
Be sure to mount your image using the /mountrw switch so that you have “read+write” access to the file system inside the image.
Don’t forget to commit the changes when un-mounting the image so that your changes are permanent.
Maybe an obvious one, but if your like me and edit images on a dedicated Tech/Admin PC, don’t forget to replace the image file on the WDS server with the version of the image which you just edited locally. The safest way to do this is through the WDS Console, rather than just copy and pasting directly into the WDS Share.
Keep in mind if your mounting a basic “boot image” the reference number to the volume is likely to be “1” instead of “2” like in the command examples from the link above. For normal “install images” will be “2” for basic partition setups, basically its the ID to the partition which contains the bootable file system, where it begins a “1”
You could edit your images and mount them directly on the WDS Server, assuming you have the Windows AIK installed or ImageX tool available. But I would recommend not editing production images in case you break one and don’t have a back-up.

Category: I.T Professionals;Raines Internet Solutions;System Administrator Tools;Windows Server 2008;Windows Vista;Windows XP;Windows Deployment Services (WDS);Windows 7;Software Deployment

Published: 18/12/2008 12:59 AM

Is Google Scared of Bing?

Tim Raines — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:57:23 GMT

Body:

I found this quite interesting, the other day I read an article about Google chief's having more hands-on involved with current projects and day to day operations at the company with speculation that they are trying to quickly catch the tail of Microsoft and there recently released search engine product called “Bing”. To the average Joe, the new Bing Search service from Microsoft doesn’t appear to be much different than the original Live Search product. Don’t be fooled they have done a lot of work with there search logic than what first meets the eye. Critics claim that Bing has made Google “shake in there boots” and I guess that’s the kind of reports the Bing development team would be wanting to hear.

So enough of the background, I initially thought .. after reading these reports about Google being nervous of Bing’s developments as a load of hog wash. I mean it could have been just media hype? I was wrong. Today, I logged onto google.com to shortly find a nice message below the search box telling me I can add “Themes” to my iGoogle page. Including imagery from the National Geographic? Check this link out, look familiar? http://www.google.com.au/help/ig/naturethemes/

If you have been to bing.com recently, you would have noticed the once thing that stands out on the search homepage, is a nice photograph as the backdrop to the dialog. The Bing page comes across more elegant than the Google equivalent. Though some may argue this takes more time to load and therefore is “not as good as Google” but I would disagree; I have my reasons.

Never the less this new copy-cat development from Google seems strange, maybe those critics were right after all? What’s your thoughts?

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Photography;Personal & Friends;Technology News;Public BETA;Web Development;Google News;Bing News

Published: 19/06/2009 12:57 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/69/image_6_2E404373.png

LG GD910 3G Touch Watch Phone

Tim Raines — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:42:11 GMT

Body:

Hey ALL

Check this one out, as I guessed .. your thinking of becoming the next James Bond, but realised you don’t have that cool watch that does everything.. Don’t worry! I have a solution for you:

LG Electronics has developed the Watch Phone capable of the world's first 3G VT Service & GSM Quad-band Network with sophisticated philosophy of 'Simple & Easy connectivity' by applying the world's best wireless technology merged with miniaturization and large scale integration technologies. LG Watch Phone is not just simple but also user-friendly, so we would like to you to experience our state of the art wearable gadget.
- World's first 3G supporting / VT call watch phone
- Capacitive Touch
- TTS (SMS, Schedule) Voice Command
- Speakerphone
- Water Resistant

This is no joke, you can pre-order at the following site: http://www.expansys.com.au/d.aspx?i=179167

For some Technical Info; you get:

Network: GSM Quad / WCDMA Single / HSDPA 7.2
Dimensions: (L x W x D/mm) 61 x 39 x 13.9/mm
Touch Screen
Standard battery: Max(mAh) 510
Display LCD (pixel): QQVGA 128x160
Number of colours/inch: 260K Color Transflective TFT/1.43"
SMS
USB
PC Sync
MIDI (poly): 64
Camera: VGA
Internal Memory: 2GB
MP3
Bluetooth: 2.0
RF Band : 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 2.1GHz, 1900MHz

Category: General/Misc.;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Windows Mobile;Watch Phone;Mobile Phones

Published: 11/06/2009 10:42 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/68/LGD910_3_6A3DDFC0.jpg

Windows 7: The wait is over..

Tim Raines — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:02:27 GMT

Body:

So it’s official; Windows 7, the next release of Windows by Microsoft Corp has been announced!

Windows 7 is expected to ship October 22nd 2009. So the wait is nearly over, the year is going so quick it will be here before we know it.

I have not heard/read anything more on Office 14, or Office 2010 .. It could be that I just haven’t kept up.

Please if you know more on a release date let me know by leaving a comment. Last I heard it was likely to be released in alignment with Windows 7, is that correct?

Category: I.T Professionals;Windows 7;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;BETA News;Technology News

Published: 7/06/2009 3:02 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/67/Windows7_3_203F060D.png

Microsoft My Phone

Tim Raines — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:44:14 GMT

Body:

Here's something new, or at least the follow on from Live Mesh Mobile which became available to U.S Windows Mobile phones late last year. My Phone a new concept or BETA application from Microsoft will soon bring that ever requested Phone backup to many users. My Phone isn’t just a Backup application, or a sync application, it is a combination of both, that utilises the cloud as a storage and application platform for its operation.

As we now refer to windows-based mobile phones simply as “Windows Phones”; a term which I learnt after watching Steve’s Keynote at the Mobile World Congress this month. Windows Phones now have the capability to be completely restored from the cloud using Microsoft My Phone, the My Phone application will let you restore individual items or whole folders of text messages, calendars, photos, music and video. Practically anything on the Windows Phone will live in the cloud and sync on a schedule of your choice. You can even associate multiple phones to your account, so you can keep everything in one place. This is also perfect if you are upgrading your phone and want to move everything over to the new one, or when you loose your phone.. you can quickly restore all your personal information to a new phone in minutes.

So far, I am very impressed. The BETA of My Phone has been working very well for me. It even lets me keep my existing Exchange Server sync profile for ActiveSync and only back’s up the other stuff I choose.

Restoring or searching for text messages which are years old is a breeze using the My Phone Web Interface, and archiving text messages so they are off the phone but safe in the My Phone system is also a good feature, there is an option to restore them back from archive whenever you may need to as well.

The BETA provides 200mb of space in the cloud, I am sure this will change as the application leaves BETA.

Check it out at:

http://myphone.microsoft.com/

Category: Live Mesh;SaaS;Public BETA;Technology News;Microsoft News;Windows Mobile;Windows Live;Windows Azure Services Platform;Web Development;Web 2.0;Microsoft My Phone;Internet & Web Tools

Published: 25/03/2009 9:44 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/64/myPhoneLogo_3_3104F56C.png

Windows 8 .. yes that’s right not Windows 7 .. Windows 8!

Tim Raines — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:21:00 GMT

Body:

Hey ALL,

Sorry for the long delay between blog posts! It’s been a while.. and I am frustrated because there has been tons of stuff which I have been wanting to share.. but just not getting the time to post it!

Anyways, as you may or may not know by now.. Windows 7; the next official release of the Windows platform will be shipping out from Redmond by at least late Q4 2009.. this will be an exciting time for many as the new operating system has proven to carry high expectations from many I.T Pros in the industry. Coupled with the next release of Windows Server 2008.. the R2 release.. we will get many new exciting technologies to roll out and implement.

But that’s old news now it seems, with a new blog I found that gives you the latest BETA news from Microsoft. Codenamed “Windows” .. simply enough.. I now discover has been in planning and early development stages for some time now.. Microsoft has been busy recruiting new developers to work on the next release; Windows 8.

Here is the link to the blog, if your interested in the developments I strongly suggest keeping an eye out for this blog and they updates that come through..

http://www.codenamewindows.com/?p=98

Category: I.T Professionals;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Microsoft News;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows 7;Software plus Services;Software Development;BETA News;Windows 8

Published: 22/04/2009 11:21 PM

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 RC1

Tim Raines — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:18:54 GMT

Body:

Just out: If you have been following the developments of Microsoft’s next generation web browser; Internet Explorer 8, expected to ship as a final release later in the year with the final Windows 7 Build, then you will be interested to know that the Release Candidate was posted up today. Internet Explorer RC1 is the next build since the IE Beta 2 build in August 2008.

First reports suggest that the IE8 RC1 is faster than the BETA 2 build. But I can’t confirm anything as I have not had time to load it up yet.

Anyway get a copy to try, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx

I am told that the IE 8 RC1 build will run on Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1, Windows 2008 but not Windows 7 BETA or Windows Server 2008 R2 BETA. Windows 7 BETA and the Windows 2008 R2 BETA ship with a pre-build of IE 8 which is believed to be a interim version somewhere between BETA 2 and this RC1 release. And of course as I mentioned above, the final build of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will include the final build of Internet Explorer 8.

Category: Microsoft News;Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;Public BETA;Windows 7;Windows XP;Windows Vista;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Server 2008;Windows Essential Server 2008;Internet Explorer 8

Published: 26/01/2009 12:58 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/63/56x56_internetexplorer_2_4C8E20A8.png
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SaaS (Software as a Service): This is Only the Beginning!

Tim Raines — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:42:46 GMT

Body:

Ok, so by now you are probably aware of the new term SaaS. Software as a Service or Software plus Services; is a hot topic on the table in the I.T industry at present, it is taking software to a completely new level. In recent times we have seen exciting new developments with-in the virtualisation market space, which is pushing the trend to take software to the cloud.

For those who might not be quiet up to speed with Software as a Service concepts, here is a brief run down; Up until a couple of years ago, the concept of a desktop application or software program was interpreted by most users as something that arrives in a box, and loaded onto the computer by means of media like CD/DVD. This was the entire application including any additional content that the application relied on, such as video, images, and or audio or dependant modules. SaaS changes all this, instead of a software vendor shipping the entire application to the customer, we will see new trends in which software vendors will ship the initial installer application that call's the Internet too download or update the modules or "features" paid for by the end-user of the application.

This cloud-based approach will deliver the customer and vendor many benefits; including added value to the end-user so that they only pay for the functionality they need from the software and not paying for un-used features/modules with easy update and upgrade paths by simple subscription programs to enable the end-user to pay for additional features/modules later on, all this leads to the benefits the vendor receives, under a SaaS model a software vendor would be able to drive more control over the quality and features there application offers, with maintenance subscriptions for end-users to insure there application is always updated correctly with financial benefits for the vendor on subscription renewals and additional module add-on's etc.

The other interests in SaaS are with centralising large ERP and Data Housing applications, today we are seeing more and more organisations either taking there application to the cloud and offering centralised deployments to branch offices in the enterprise to software vendors offering "hosted" versions of there software so that the back-end data is hosted in the cloud and the client application points to the server in the data centre directly.

I think all these SaaS initiatives are fantastic! The next generation of computing is here, I can only begin to predict how this cloud-computing model will evolve the way we interact with software and computing in the near future .. I would expect to see more devices become internet aware or have connectivity built-in so that they are able to use data in the cloud. Wouldn’t it be great if like simple things such as alarm clocks could sync time with the home wireless via a internet time server. Or embedded operating system in the micro-wave to store or download cooking presets for your favourite meals. You may laugh at it now.. but soon it will be a normal thing.. just like when people couldn’t believe that we needed a computer in every home!

To keep up to speed on SaaS please read more on what some of the big vendors are doing such as Microsoft, Parallels, Cisco Systems and Windows Live Services

Category: Education;Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Raines Internet Solutions;Software Development;Technology News

Published: 29/06/2008 7:41 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: saas-software-as-a-service-this-is-only-the-beginning

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Microsoft's New Vision: A Computer in every... Coffee Maker?

Tim Raines — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:29:00 GMT

Body:

Well we all know the famous words that Bill told us back many years ago; Bill Gates had the vision, and I quote ”a computer on every desk, and in every home”. Truth is, people laughed at that statement only 20 years ago.

Today on average the common house-hold may have up to 4 or 5 PCs including notebook computers. Plus a range of other entertainment devices which perform many of the tasks a PC can do.

I came across this headline above and couldn’t help but read the article which I think is worth sharing.. couple of reasons.

Anyone who might know me, probably thinks that because the word “coffee'” was in the headline, that’s why I clicked it!
I actually made a similar prediction in the last paragraph of a post I made on SaaS ages ago, which somewhat resembled the direction things are going according to the article. Which I agree with.
Lastly I think that it’s exciting to see more devices becoming internet aware/enabled. And encourage any development toward this type of framework and concept in general.

Anyway have a read if you interested.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090112-microsofts-new-vision-a-computer-in-every-coffee-maker.html

Category: Microsoft Partners;Microsoft News;General/Misc.;Personal & Friends;Music & Lifestyle;Technology News;Software plus Services;Software Development;SaaS;Web Development;Web 2.0

Published: 13/01/2009 8:29 PM

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New Tool: Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Release Candidate)

Tim Raines — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:37:33 GMT

Body:

In the previous blog post I talked about configuring MIME Types for Silverlight so that IIS 7.0 or 6.0 will load your applications successfully.

I came across another handy tool for Server Administrators or Web Developers to use, I don’t think it’s been around that long as I haven’t seen it before?

The tool is called Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI). It is a simple tool that installs Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform.

The tool also has a couple of custom installation profiles for PHP developers to ensure you have all the right components installed in IIS 7 to start developing.

The latest release now supports IIS6.0 – This means it will help you configure Windows Server 2003 computers for the Microsoft Web Platform.

Category: IIS 7.0;I.T Professionals;Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft Partners;Software Development;Web Development;Web 2.0;Windows Server 2008;Windows Live

Published: 13/01/2009 2:37 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/61/ms_net_rgb_web_3_2646EB93.jpg
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Configuring IIS 7.0 or IIS 6.0 for Silverlight Applications

Tim Raines — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:11:45 GMT

Body:

If your having a lot of difficulty getting a Silverlight application to work on your web server and can’t work out what the problem might be even after the Silverlight assemblies are registered on server and .NET framework is up-to-date then this might be what your missing. IIS7 for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 does not ship with the MIME Types registered for file types used by Silverlight applications. This also mean’s older web servers running IIS6 will also need the correct MIME Types configured for a Silverlight application to work correctly.

These are the MIME Types needed for Silverlight Applications to function properly:

.xap application/x-silverlight-app
.xaml application/xaml+xml
.xbap application/x-ms-xbap

In IIS7 registering MIME Types can be done either via the IIS Manager console (GUI) or editing the: %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config file under the section. In IIS6 you can use the IIS6.0 Console or script the changes.

Luckily I wrote a small VBS Script to automatically register the correct MIME Types for an IIS7-based web server. The script wont work on IIS6, you will need to do it manually. You can either Run the script directly by clicking it below, or Save Target as by right-clicking the link and saving it to run later.

If you need some help to manually register MIME Types in IIS7 or IIS6 you can follow this article: http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/262/silverlight/

Category: Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;General/Misc.;Windows Vista;Windows Server 2008;IIS 7.0

Published: 12/01/2009 1:11 AM

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CES 2009: Opening Keynote with Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) – Video

Tim Raines — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:30:24 GMT

Body:

This is the opening Keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show 2009 (CES09). This is the first time Steve has done the opening keynote since the beginning of CES about 15 years ago. Traditionally Bill Gates opened the CES each year with his keynote address to the audience. The video below makes several announcements; some of which include the release of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 BETA’s, information on where Microsoft are going in 2009 with digital Media and Entertainment using XBOX and Mediaroom platforms including the seamless integration that Windows Live brings to tie all the devices we use today with services in the cloud. It’s well worth the watch so enjoy!

Category: CES 2009;I.T Professionals;Internet & Web Tools;Live Mesh;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Public BETA;Software plus Services;SaaS;Technology News;Windows 7;Windows Live;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Vista;Windows Mobile;Mediaroom;XBOX 360

Published: 11/01/2009 7:30 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/59/video0cb8df05963c_08C82C3A.jpg

Windows 7 Public BETA and Windows Server 2008 R2 Public BETA … Let Loose..

Tim Raines — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:20:02 GMT

Body:

If your a CES fan then you will have already heard the news!

But I like to get in on the headlines and share it.. that’s why blogging is so great!

Anyway the hot news this week is the official BETA releases of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. I will keep this blog post short and sweet with just the links to the downloads and will follow up with a couple more posts later on containing information on features in the new OS’s from Microsoft and I'll do a post with some CES09 videos.

Download the OFFICAL Windows 7 BETA from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

Download the OFFICAL Windows 2008 R2 BETA from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/r2.aspx

Please Note: I wont take any responsibility for the use of this BETA software. Please read the information carefully from the links provided above. It is recommended not to use BETA software on production systems, or for inexperienced users. The only recommendation I will provided to people willing to try out Windows BETA’s is to do so using Virtual PC 2007, this is a free download from Microsoft that allows you to run another OS virtually inside your existing PC without interfering with your files and configuration.

Also for those who might be wondering, this is the first official public release of both Windows OS’s from Microsoft. Some other BETA’s have been floating around the internet for some time now, if you’ve installed one, its more than likely not complete or real/genuine.

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;I.T Professionals;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows 7;Technology News;Software plus Services;Public BETA;CES 2009

Published: 9/01/2009 6:13 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/58/image_3_1EC02D05.png
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What Microsoft has to say about the New MacBooks

Tim Raines — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:16:12 GMT

Body:

This is great! Pictures speak the blog post for me.. well truth is I am feeling lazy at the moment. Anyway read this:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/10/microsoft_responds_to_new_macbooks_just_says_apple_tax_eight_times-2.html

Caption: If Steve didn’t really say that.. I am sure he might have been thinking it!

Category: Apple News & Goodies;2008;Microsoft News;Technology News

Published: 31/12/2008 1:16 AM

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Merry Christmas!

Tim Raines — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:49:57 GMT

Body:

Hey

Just a quick post for today to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope you have had a great day.

Cheers,

Tim

Category: Personal & Friends;General/Misc.;Tim & Lauren;Music & Lifestyle;2008

Published: 25/12/2008 4:49 PM

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Canada Source of over 9 Billion Spam Messages a day: Cisco Study Shows

Tim Raines — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:06:25 GMT

Body:

Well we know that spam is a pain in the ass, and for those who don’t work in the I.T industry; you may not realise just how much spam is actually sent around the internet in a single day.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/16/canada-spam.html – This article is worth reading.

Some of the Quick Facts (Information based on the Report from Cisco Systems):

It’s estimated that almost 200 Billion Spam email’s are sent daily. Which is equivalent to about 90% of all emails sent world-wide.
Spam has doubled since the previous year (2007).
The USA is responsible for approximately 17.2% of All Spam sent globally.
Turkey and Russia follow behind the US with 9.2% and 8.0% respectively.
Nearly all spam sent is not actually sent via the spammer’s computers, they are sent via vulnerable users who un-willing allowed a Trojan or back-door to their system which spammers will manipulate and use until it is closed.

As a web hosting business; about 85% of all emails passed through the Raines Internet Solutions email servers on a daily basis are filtered out as spam. This is only for a small number of hosted domain’s. I could only begin to imagine the performance loss which bigger hosting companies must have when they are hosting upward of 5000+ domains in their networks. We would all gain so much more performance from our hardware investments if spam did not exist!

Category: Internet & Web Tools;I.T Professionals;General/Misc.;Raines Internet Solutions;Technology News

Published: 19/12/2008 1:06 AM

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Something to Laugh at..

Tim Raines — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:38:13 GMT

Body:

Lol I don’t know why I am posting this.. but I saw it and made me laugh. I hope those dudes escaped! That bear looks like one big unit. The grizzly probably can run faster than a golf buggy

Category: General/Misc.;Personal & Friends;Photography

Published: 19/12/2008 12:38 AM

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Microsoft Citizen Services Platform - Resources

Tim Raines — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:54:26 GMT

Body:

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Microsoft conference in Melbourne which focussed on the Microsoft CSP (Citizen Services Platform). CSP is a collective effort of resources, sales collateral and opportunities created by Microsoft for Partners to sell solutions in the public market space; meaning local government and even state/federal levels of government.

At the conference we covered a heap of valuable material and a lot of great questions/discussions occurred. There was mention of Solution Accelerators and code available from the CodePlex.com website which is designed for partners to get started on rapid deployment of new solutions.

For those who are interested here is the link to the code and examples on CodePlex:

http://www.codeplex.com/csp

Category: Solution Accelerators;I.T Professionals;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Small Business;Technology News;Microsoft Citizen Services Platform;Microsoft Office SharePoint Server;Windows SharePoint Services 3.0;Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Published: 10/12/2008 1:54 PM

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Follow Up: More Info on the Anti-Virus 2009 Hoax and Related Variants

Tim Raines — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:06:06 GMT

Body:

You may recall my post on this Anti-Virus 2009 or similar malware that’s been floating around which attempts to fool the user in thinking they have viruses on their PC and forces a payment for the software which fixes false threats.

This post is just an update or follow up on this malware; an official reference is available from the Microsoft Protection Center - http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Entry.aspx?name=Trojan%3aWin32%2fFakeSecSen

If you have any questions related to this one let me know, I have had some experience in dealing with this malware already. My best recommendation for people is to ensure they have a copy of Windows Defender installed, and if your running Windows Vista, make sure is turned-on and up-to-date.

If you have the most recent definitions for Defender you should be able to clean up your PC from this threat.

Category: I.T Professionals;Internet & Web Tools;Personal & Friends;Windows Vista;Windows XP;Windows Live OneCare;General/Misc.

Published: 7/12/2008 8:06 PM

Windows Live OneCare to be replaced by a new free Microsoft Anti-Virus Tool code-named: Morro

Tim Raines — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:04:53 GMT

Body:

Some are saying it's been a failure from the beginning, Microsoft's Consumer Anti-Virus product called Windows Live OneCare will be dropped from retail sale in June next year with a new offering code-named: Morro set to be it's replacement.

Windows Live OneCare had only made it to version 2.0, before the decision was made to remove the product line completely. Some critics had said from the very beginning that OneCare was a waste of time and money when compared to other products already in the market; such as Symantec and Trend-micro's AV products.

In my opinion, the new free version will add that extra competitiveness in the consumer AV market, just like Windows Defender did with the Malware defence software markets. I think Microsoft understand that the average consumer AV product doesn't hold it's value, like it used to and feel it needs to offer it without charge to show their differentiation in the market.

Good news for large enterprise and SME's is that no change that I am aware of with Forefront security products, that software is still strong, and holding up in the market.

Article Reference: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/11/18/Microsoft_drops_OneCare_antivirus_product_1.html

Category: Microsoft News;Small Business;Technology News;Windows Home Server;Windows Live;Windows Vista;Windows XP;Windows Live OneCare

Published: 19/11/2008 9:04 PM

Windows Server 2008 R2 - Introduction

Tim Raines — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:16:11 GMT

Body:

Ok so it's on it's way .. sooner than you may think.. well don't stress to much Windows 7 is scheduled some time during 2010 and so will Windows Server 2008 R2.

Basically in a nutshell this new roll-up release will provide the much needed support for Windows 7 deployments and management. You can get a whole heap of resources on the R2 release which are available from Microsoft.com.

Beta testing might have already started on the R2 release (not 100% sure..)

It's good that they are getting these resources up quicker so that we can be fully prepared as soon as the OS hits the big time. Get used to it as we all know Operating System releases are becoming more frequent these days.. and there're wont be room for excuses if you can't keep up!

All Your Windows Server 2008 R2 Resources can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2.aspx

Category: I.T Professionals;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;System Administrator Tools;Technology News;Virtualisation;Windows Server 2008;Windows 7;Windows Server 2008 R2

Published: 14/11/2008 12:16 AM

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Windows Server Codename "Dublin"

Tim Raines — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:02:55 GMT

Body:

Yes Yes, get ready for yet the next instalment of Microsoft's Server platform, Windows Server code-named "Dublin" is set to release sometime around 2010. This platform is sounding like the first release of Windows Server which is going to feature as a dedicated Application server. This will fall in-line for those enterprise developers whom by that stage will have been working with the Azure platform and other cloud services.

It would appear that in the next release of Windows Server, their will be core support for the new .NET Framework 4.0 and Oslo (Microsoft's new modelling language). While still retaining core application functionality of today's .NET 3.5 Applications. So developers wont need to worry about moving up to the next release.. in fact it sounds like the move would only give greater functionality to existing .NET 3.5 app's as they become more complex.

This is only early news on the new server release but to read up on it more and for a data sheet on what the features are likely to be on Dublin and .NET Framework 4.0 just visit this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/net/Dublin.aspx

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Live Mesh;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;PDC 2008;Raines Internet Solutions;SaaS;Software Development;Software plus Services;Technology News;Web Development;Windows Azure Services Platform;Windows Server 2008;.NET Framework 4.0;Oslo;Windows Server Code-Named "Dublin"

Published: 15/11/2008 12:02 AM

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Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool

Tim Raines — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:40:32 GMT

Body:

Here is a neat little tool for better management of Virtual Machines when they aren't online.. because when you need to deploy windows updates or other changes in the network, commonly the problem I.T Pros face is that the Virtual machines miss out on the updates and become vulnerable next time they do come back online, as they wouldn't be patched up-to-date.

This one is for the more security conscious administrator.

Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8408ECF5-7AFE-47EC-A697-EB433027DF73&displaylang=en

Overview (from Microsoft.com):

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool helps organizations maintain virtual machines that are stored offline in a Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager library. While stored, virtual machines do not receive operating system updates. The tool provides a way to keep offline virtual machines up-to-date so that bringing a virtual machine online does not introduce vulnerabilities into the organization’s IT infrastructure.
The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool combines the Windows Workflow programming model with the Windows PowerShell™ interface to bring groups of virtual machines online just long enough for them to receive updates from either System Center Configuration Manager 2007 or Windows Server Update Services. As soon as the virtual machines are up-to-date, the tool returns them to the offline state in the Virtual Machine Manager library.
This Solution Accelerator includes the following components:

Executive Overview. Available online only on Microsoft Technet. Summary for business and technical managers that briefly explains how this Solution Accelerator can fit into an organization’s IT infrastructure management strategy.
OfflineVMServicing_x64 and OfflineVMServicing_x86. Setup files for the tool, for 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Windows Server® 2003.
OfflineVirtualMachineServicingToolGettingStartedGuide. Getting Started Guide, in docx and doc formats. Provides information about how the tool works, explains prerequisites for the tool, and describes how to install and configure the tool.
Offline_VM_Servicing_Tool_Release_Notes.rtf. Notes provide information about this release, describe known issues in the tool, and include feedback instructions.
Offline_Virtual_Machine_Servicing_Tool_Help. Help file for the tool. Provides instructions for using the tool.

Category: I.T Professionals;Microsoft Partners;Solution Accelerators;System Administrator Tools;Virtualisation;Windows Server 2008

Published: 13/11/2008 11:40 PM

Work in the Cloud.. Windows Live Mesh

Tim Raines — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:14:19 GMT

Body:

Wow! I had heard talk of this Windows Live Mesh technology some months ago, possibly from a web cast or conference where Bill Gates was talking about the new ways in which he sees us being able to connect and share information in rich ways via the "cloud" aka the Internet.

It was only brought to my attention recently that a TECH PREVIEW for the software was release to the public to try out. So I registered to participate.

Now that I am on board with the TECH PREVIEW for Windows Live Mesh; I must say it is impressive stuff, Live Mesh is simple to use, which brings so much functionality to the table for a end-user. This technology really showcases some of the key benefits of moving to the cloud computing model.

Which will soon be reality for many of us. Though for some the concepts of Live Mesh might be hard to grasp at first, having used it and watching some demo's will enable those to quickly understand how Live Mesh can improve there mobility and ease of access to the information most important to them.

For example;

I am able to remote connect to all my devices and access files that are personal to me, where ever I am, I have placed them into my mesh. As long as the device is switched on I can connect in, without firewalls, VPN's or remote access software. Just the Mesh client and my Windows Live ID.

Support for Windows Mobile devices and Apple Mac's is on the way very soon, this will really show case how incredible the software actually is.

Visit the Windows Live Mesh web site today and learn more about this exciting new technology.

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Technology News;Live Mesh;Music & Lifestyle;Windows Live;Windows Vista;Windows XP;Windows Home Server;Apple News & Goodies

Published: 15/07/2008 6:14 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: work-in-the-cloud-windows-live-mesh

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Live Mesh: Add Your Car to Your Mesh of Devices

Tim Raines — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:38:23 GMT

Body:

Just to highlight a link in the previous post on Live Mesh, this "proof of concept" video on a type of application which can be developed using Live Mesh technology.

The Mesh-Mobile is a small project one of the developers on the Live Mesh Team created. It's a very cool device.. if you like in-car things check this one out.

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Ori-Amiga-Mesh-Mobile/

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Technology News;Windows Live;Windows Vista;Live Mesh

Published: 8/11/2008 1:38 AM

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Live Mesh: Just Got Better!

Tim Raines — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:19:19 GMT

Body:

If your not already signed up and using Live Mesh you should go and check out what all the fuss is about! I think you might like it. If you've got question about Live Mesh, just post a comment to me I will get back to you. Head over to www.mesh.com for the latest on Live Mesh.

For those who are already on Live Mesh or are keeping up with developments, Mesh has moved into Beta. This means it's available to general public to try out. Further more, it now supports sync'ing data on your Apple Mac and Windows-based phone (UK and USA Users Only). We will get phone support soon, I loaded up the Live Mesh client on my phone, just waiting for them to enable more beta testers.

If that's not enough the Platform was another popular topic at the recent PDC 2008. The Mesh team revealed many of the possible uses where Live Mesh might become the core platform embedded on-top of many devices we take for granted today. Things like your Home Server, Xbox, Zune, and Mobile Car will soon be Live Mesh realities. But that's not all.. Devices such as digital photo frames, camera's and printers will join the Live Mesh cloud of possibilities.

I will be chasing the backside of this new technology as new features are available. So keep an eye out for more info on the blog.

Category: Apple News & Goodies;Internet & Web Tools;Live Mesh;Microsoft News;Music & Lifestyle;Software Development;Technology News;Web 2.0;Web Development;Windows Live;Windows Vista;Windows XP

Published: 8/11/2008 1:19 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/43/LiveMesh_logo_3.png
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Windows Server 2008 R2: Support for up to 256 CPU Cores

Tim Raines — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:35:37 GMT

Body:

"Just what I needed for that computer I never had an Operating System for!?"

Ha-ha. Yeah Right!

Due for a release at some point in 2010; Microsoft's next release of the already successful 2008 Server product, the R2 Edition has been confirmed to have support for up to a total of 256 CPU Cores. This is fantastic news for those who are making large migrations into the Virtualisation space.

Along with this new support for CPU's the R2 Release of Windows 2008 will have support for the next release of SQL Server; code-named: Kilimanjaro, support for Windows 7 platform and many other new tools & features.

This info was sourced from the following article:

http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/11/06/Microsoft_Windows_Server_2008_R2_to_support_up_to_256_CPU_cores_1.html

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Technology News;Windows Server 2008

Published: 7/11/2008 11:35 PM

Microsoft Launches New Services Platform: Windows Azure @ PDC 2008

Tim Raines — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:38:28 GMT

Body:

If you haven't heard or seen anything about Windows Azure, that's ok.. It's a fairly new announcement from Microsoft Corp. We have been hearing the likes of Ray Ozzie and other key Microsoft staff talk about the "Cloud" and how important it is to move into a new software plus services model for the enterprise. Now it has become a critical business decision for the enterprise; should we inject large amounts of capital spend into construction of new corporate datacenters? Many software development companies and ISV/System Integrators are finding this question hard to come to terms with, especially with many other factors that come into the picture; redundancy, bandwidth, global coverage, disaster recovery, scaling to meet demand. Just to name a few.

Now an cost-effective/resource friendly alternative is on the horizon. Dubbed Windows Azure Services Platform, it's less a replacement for the operating system that runs on one's own in-house servers. Windows Azure is an alternative for developers, intended to let them write applications that live/run inside Microsoft's own purpose built Data Centres as opposed to running the applications on the servers in a given company.

Windows Azure Services Platform, is not a typical boxed software product, nor is it a software product available for system administrators to operate from on-premises hardware, but rather a suite of technologies that are completely under management of Microsoft and it's personnel/expertise.

"It's a transformation of our software and a transformation of our strategy," said Ray Ozzie, a computing industry pioneer who now serves as Microsoft's chief software architect.

Windows Azure is still in early testing stages and currently available to PDC attendees to start using with out charge.

Lot's of Tools, Resources and Visual Studio 2008 Starter kits are now available to download from www.azure.com

Soon a SDK will be available (if it isn't already) which will allow dev's to simulate a real world Windows Azure system to test applications before sending them to the cloud. This will give everyone a chance to get used to the API's and functions which the platform will offer, with the convenience of offline usage.

If you have a spare 1hr and a half, the keynote from day one of the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC) is well worth a watch, the video can be found using this link:

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/KYN01/

For many other videos from the 2008 PDC see this Blog:

http://dev.live.com/blogs/devlive/archive/2008/10/24/416.aspx

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;PDC 2008;SaaS;Software Development;Software plus Services;Technology News;Web 2.0;Windows Azure Services Platform;Windows Live

Published: 8/11/2008 12:38 AM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/42/image_3.png
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/42/WindowsAzure_3.gif

Watch Out: Anti-virus 2009 Scam

Tim Raines — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:08:40 GMT

Body:

Hey, just a quick update on something that I felt might be important to inform readers on.

In the last 2 or 3 weeks I have received a number of questions from co-workers and family about a virus warning on their PC's after browsing a web site directly from a Google.com.au or Google.com web search.

This web site claims to be a free anti-virus scanner which detects a numerous amount of Viruses on your computer to which it proceeds into a purchase option for removal of the infections.

It has a invasive and malicious interface which can be difficult to escape, but at all costs I recommend pressing "Ctrl + Alt + Del" and Ending the iexplorer.exe process to close your browser session.

Do Not Believe or Trust this web site even though the interface closely resembles a trust worthy tool.

Most of the major Anti-Virus vendors have released updated definitions to detect and remove the "fake" Trojan's it will load onto your computer if you happen to accidentally proceed with the service provided from these sites.

Its also worth noting that the scam is not from any particular site, it has been found on a number of different domains; and web URLs.

If you have been caught out by this Scam please view this web site: (has a removal process available for infected users). I will not be held accountable for the miss-configuration or repair of your computer by following any guides from resources I provide.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081001161249AA8opzv

Category: Apple News & Goodies;General/Misc.;Internet & Web Tools;Personal & Friends;Windows Home Server;Windows Server 2008;Windows Vista;Windows XP

Published: 30/10/2008 1:08 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/40/BeWarnedSpywareCapture_2.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/40/BeWarnedSpywareCapture_thumb.jpg

Approval's for Comments on My Blog

Tim Raines — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:26:55 GMT

Body:

Just a quick note for those who read my (sometimes boring) blog. I had to turn on Approval for comments, as I am getting a lot of SPAM comments. This means when you post a comment it wont show up straight away, once I approve it, the comment will show up on the post.

Sorry to have to do that, but SPAM is a killer and I had to try and control it some way or another.. grrr bloody spammers! Get a real job!

Category: General/Misc.;Personal & Friends

Published: 21/09/2008 1:20 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/39/warning_3.gif

Microsoft Equipt - Good Value for Home Users

Tim Raines — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:17:04 GMT

Body:

This is something that I must of missed out on, or they have been keeping quiet! Anyway I have blogged about SaaS before, and how it is the future software model for all major vendors. Microsoft have been working hard to push new products out onto the market with subscription based offerings, as well as the traditional licensing model.

Microsoft Equipt appears to be one of the first subscription based "bundles" that is being targeted at home-user/student markets. You could in the past, buy subscriptions to Windows Live OneCare, but this new bundle called "Microsoft Equipt" is good value that leverages the Software Subscription model; customers will get the Anti-Virus protection and updates from the OneCare product, bundled with the latest Office Home/Student Release (currently 2007) and any updates under the one subscription. If the customer continues to pay the subscription renewal, not only will they get the Anti-Virus updates, but the new versions of Office as they become available.. The releases are becoming more regular as Microsoft realise the need to push forward faster in the ever changing information world which we live. Subscription models work hand-in-hand with this rapid software release behaviour.

Finally, Microsoft decided that this new "Equipt" bundle needed to have a little more value, and has announced that the subscription will let you use the software on a total of 3 PC's in your home, all for the one small price. This is a real plus, because in this day-n-age most families have more than one PC at home, and buying software for each, and keeping active Anti-Virus subscriptions for all the PC's was a expensive and difficult task. This new bundle will change this completely.

Currently we cannot purchase Microsoft Equipt subscriptions in Australia, as far as I am aware, as soon as I get word from the distributors I will post up a link to a place where you can get your hands on this software.

Learn More about Microsoft Equipt here: http://www.microsoft.com/equipt/default.aspx

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Raines Internet Solutions;SaaS;Small Business;Technology News;Windows Home Server;Windows Live

Published: 22/09/2008 1:17 PM

The Mojave Experiment

Tim Raines — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:14:02 GMT

Body:

Have you being hearing from friends and colleagues that Windows Vista is not worth it's time? And that it does not increase productivity at all?

Well the truth generally is because those friends have in-fact not used or spent more than 10mins working with the latest OS from Microsoft, but most likely been told from another of their friends that its bad. In reality I will undoubtedly admit Microsoft had coped a lot of bad press from the release of Windows Vista. The sources of this bad press generally was from the computer hobbyists and individual's who are self absorbed by their own opinions via personal and public blogs or other Internet media that the word got round too fast which left Microsoft with some issues to respond too.

If you had spoken to me or asked me about what I thought of Windows Vista since it's 2007 debut; you would have worked out that I have been supporting its fantastic strengths from day one, every friend and customer I have either recommended or sold Windows Vista too has responded with a "wow" just like that infamous marketing campaign had intended.. Windows Vista's strengths are enhancements that we are now taking for granted as the I.T industry is rapidly moving forward. I never once and still don't have any gripe about the new OS, and as I understand not all users may benefit from it and those who have no specific reason to not upgrade then I will guarantee they will not be disappointed.

Many of the initial speculations on issues around Windows Vista were compatibility related, but what many consumers didn't consider; and I.T Pro's as well for that matter, was the simple fact that compatibility; though its Microsoft's responsibility to offer resources and documentation on the topic, ultimately fell with the OEM's and ISV's respectively who bring the products to market in the I.T industry. These companies many of who are Microsoft Partners, are the vendors who support the hardware and software products that may cause compatibility issues in a new Operating System. If you were oblivious to this specific fact then you do not have a right to comment on issues with compatibility and Windows Vista in my view.

Another point on this issue; if for example (and this is common) the ISV makes a software application for a version of Fedora Linux, which in a year or so's time becomes legacy because the regularity of new versions Fedora that are released, are you going to complain to Red Hat that they don't offer compatibility? Or for that matter the Open Source community ... A change in kernel version from version to version in any flavour of Linux is enough to break software applications and more importantly hardware device drivers. So how is this any different to Microsoft? It's not, and my point exactly; at the end of they day Microsoft will do there best to support legacy applications and hardware to a certain extent, but most of the responsibility falls back on the OEM or ISV to support these issues.

Finally I will make the point that new operating systems, such as Windows Vista don't just "hit the shelves" and the poor OEM's and ISV's have to chase the tail of a new OS in the market, these guys get plenty of time prior to RTM with pre-released code, and builds of the OS well before the public can get their hands on it! Many other resources and core documentation that is essential too the OEM's and ISV's is available pre-RTM release.

Anyway enough of my babel the reason for this Post is to provide a link to an experiment Microsoft did with unfamiliar users of Windows Vista. Microsoft demonstrated the product calling it a future release of Windows with a codename "Mojave", they tracked the responses from these users for everyone to view; check it out; if you haven't moved from the dark side yet and still are a bit skeptical of Windows Vista.

The Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/mojave.aspx

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Personal & Friends;Raines Internet Solutions;Technology News;Windows Vista;Linux

Published: 15/09/2008 9:14 PM

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/37/expwinvista_aero_img04_3.gif

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 - Now Available

Tim Raines — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:49:56 GMT

Body:

Just a quick update, you can now download the Windows Home Server Power Pack v1 from Microsoft.com and soon too Windows Update.

This update is warmly welcomed by the Home Server community as it brings some much needed updates and patches to the OS.

Some of the updates include:

Support for Home Computers that are running Windows Vista x64 editions
Backup of Home Server shared folders
Improvements to Remote Access
More Efficient Power Consumption
Improved Performance

See this link for More Info on the Update and for a Download Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944289

Category: Microsoft News;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Technology News;Windows Vista;Windows Home Server

Published: 10/09/2008 9:49 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-home-server-power-pack-1-now-available

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/36/clip_image002_3.jpg

Windows Live Development Resources

Tim Raines — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:13:43 GMT

Body:

Windows Live, a Online Services division at Microsoft. We all know Windows Live which is the elder of previous services like Hotmail and .net Passport the first single sign-on system Microsoft and it's MSN business offered to customers in the hope of simplified access to online services and resources. A technology that came as a key feature to the earlier versions of the .net Framework, developers could utilise the Passport sign-in system and integrate the single-sign on feature into there own applications. In the later; .net Framework 2.0 introduced the .net Membership provider option which widely became the next solution for single-sign on web applications.

At present, developers have many choices when it comes to offering a single-sign on system in their applications, in addition to these choices, now developers have simple platform with Windows Live Services offered by Microsoft. This would mean that users who have an existing Windows Live ID could instantly join your site, without the need to create, yet another account (which users tend to hate doing).

Along with this are many many more exciting online services on offer with Windows Live. I encourage having a look at the Live Dev site; it gets updated often so if you have seen it, go back and have a look. You might find something new!

http://dev.live.com/

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;SaaS;Software Development;Technology News;Web 2.0;Web Development;Windows Live

Published: 2/09/2008 12:13 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-live-development-resources

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/35/Windows_Live_h_web_3.jpg

Windows Internet Explorer 8 BETA 2 Released

Tim Raines — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:25:51 GMT

Body:

Yesterday marked another important milestone in the development of Internet Explorer 8. IE 8 BETA 2 was released for public download. This mean's anyone can download it and begin testing the new version. Internet Explorer 8 is due to ship as a full final release in November this year.

As expected a lot of new Consumer functionality has been included into BETA 2, compared with the first release which was more of a Developer preview.

Some users are already saying that they will now happily use IE 8 simply because it has a "Crash Recovery" feature built-in. Something FireFox has had for sometime now.

But this feature alone is not really the feature making talk between Dev's. Internet Explorer 8's new Standards Mode will be in my opinion, one of the biggest changes Microsoft has made in the new version, this has completely changed the direction of Internet Explorer, and is seriously turning heads in the Web Dev industry when it comes to standards based web development, and the challenges web dev's face in standards compatibility across different browsers. My first post on Internet Explorer 8 BETA 1 covers most of the new features and talks about the new direction Microsoft have taken, please read if you haven't already.

Some of the New Features which are now present in BETA 2 are:

InPrivate Mode - A Private Browsing Mode which lets users surf the web "off the record"
Accelerators - which were called Activities in BETA 1
Visual Search Suggestions - Real-time search suggestions from your nominated search provider when users use the Instant Search in the top-right corner.
Suggested Sites - User enabled feature to enhance browsing experience.
SmartScreen - An Updated release of the Anti-Phishing filter in IE 7.0.

Download Internet Explorer 8 BETA 2:

I highly recommend giving Internet Explorer 8 a try. BUT please make sure you fully read and understand the release notes before running the installer for IE 8 BETA2. If you are not a moderate/experienced user I would recommend to wait for the Full Final release in November. As I don't want to be held responsible if you stuff up your System because you didn't read the release notes.

Basically the important things to consider from the release notes are Windows XP SP3 or if you already have IE 8 BETA 1 installed. There are also some known issues with toolbars such as the Google toolbar.. if you use it! - As you should already know; a number of Windows OS dependant functions rely on Internet Explorer to work correctly, thus why I stress reading/understanding the release notes, as upgrading IE might break some software as this is still a BETA release.

Download IE 8.0 BETA 2: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Software Development;Technology News;Web 2.0;Web Development;Windows Server 2008;Windows Vista;Windows XP

Published: 29/08/2008 12:25 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-internet-explorer-8-beta-2-released

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/34/IE8BetaLogo_3.jpg

Oslo: The Road to Microsoft's Cloud

Tim Raines — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:53:14 GMT

Body:

Well I am a little bit late making this blog entry, but I guess for some it's not old news, and for the rest it's a new outlook which should be discussed.

Oslo was one of many hot topics presented at the recent Microsoft Partner Worldwide Conference, last month. A new modelling language is under heavy development up at Redmond codenamed: "Oslo".

This new coding language is what Microsoft are calling the next generation language, it takes on the application workflow concepts which have become today's reality in software plus services environments. In today's software plus services cloud computing environments we have the need to be able to model all services so that they tie in with each other in a more greater way. As many of these services are generally not all written by the same company it can become a time consuming challenge to integrate with traditional application integration methods. Sure we have XML, and the advancements in XML based services and data formats have moved us forward in the way applications have previously been modelled, but it will be a new standard in XML that Oslo will utilise to better drive this modelling framework and all the tools that will go with it.

Innovations from Oslo should also further Microsoft's software-plus-services efforts by providing extensions to the application platform to help developers bridge the gap between on-premise and off-premise projects.

According to Steven Martin, director of product management, connected systems division, Oslo also aims to change modelling from a paradigm wherein models describe the application; to a paradigm where models are the application.

"Models have to become the applications," he said. "We think that the premise of modelling tools is just fundamentally flawed" he said.

Microsoft also plans to release advances in model-driven development from WCF and WF with its .Net Framework 4 release. Tools to develop on these new releases will come through new technology planned for Visual Studio 10 intended to make strides in end-to-end application lifecycle management through new tools for model-driven design of distributed applications. Microsoft also intends to make investments in aligning the metadata repositories across the Server and Tools product sets.

Microsoft also recently demonstrated an upcoming community technology preview of Microsoft BizTalk Services, featuring additional support for interoperability, Web 2.0 services, identity standards and workflow in the cloud.

Microsoft BizTalk Server 6 will continue to provide a core foundation for distributed and highly scalable SOA and BPM solutions, and deliver the capability to develop, manage and deploy composite applications.

Microsoft System Center 5, Visual Studio 10 and BizTalk Server 6 will utilize a repository technology for managing, versioning and deploying models.

Microsoft is not providing exact time frames for when technologies such as .Net Framework 4 and Visual Studio 10 will ship. But the .Net Framework 3.5 has yet to ship.

Article References:

http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=48814&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=0&hide_js=1

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Models-Oslo/

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Raines Internet Solutions;SaaS;Software Development;Technology News;Web 2.0;Web Development

Published: 9/08/2008 12:53 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: oslo-the-road-to-microsofts-cloud

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/33/MyNetworkPlaces_2.png
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/33/MyNetworkPlaces_thumb.png

It's Time to Go... Big Brother

Tim Raines — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:50:56 GMT

Body:

We have seen 8 seasons pass of Big Brother in Australia, and it hasn't been without its colourful events along the way. Now those infamous words, "It's Time Too Go.." have been reversed. The now popular headline in the Press has finally become a reality of it's own for the Network TEN program, Big Brother; which viewers saw the last season go to air this year.

Network TEN made the announcement during the last week of the show that it wont be announcing a new season, and that the 2008 season would be it's last.

If you have been following the media, you will have seen many articles on the issues that surrounded the reality TV show that once captured a very broad audience. According to Mike Goldman, who's been around since day one, ratings were not a factor in the shows closure. Though the show has been axed, there has been rumours that another network may take up the offer to bring BB back on air.

On one hand I am slightly disappointed that there will not be any more Big Brother, well at least the way I know it. On the other hand I think CH10 deserve to loose the program, in my opinion it is CH10's own fault for basically destroying a show that once was good. But ok, maybe let's not hang all the blame on the Network for making this decision, we as the public are also at fault. Over the years I think the acceptance of what is "social correct" was possibly breached a number of times by the contestants on the show, but hey.. having said all that, isn't the whole point of "Reality TV" to show these attributes and commercialise them? They don't call "Trash-TV" exactly that for no reason, I'd say don't watch if you have an issue with it. I can think of much worse programs that fall under the "Reality TV" umbrella on non-free to air channels such as MTV.

This season though, CH10 went and changed the program's format in a number of ways, none of them I liked or supported. Change is good, but not when it's occurred from means of peer pressure, and media hype on the issues that surround it. In some respects BB08 was changed to accommodate the critics of the past seasons, I think they were intimidated by past events which had occurred.

Anyway, thanks to Big Brother for the years of TV which I did enjoy, in the end I will miss the show not being on air, or not being the same as I first knew it.

I'd love to hear feedback on this, I know there are some real haters of BB out there .. and some serious fans .. post a comment if you want to talk about BB!

Category: Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;TV Shows;Big Brother

Published: 29/07/2008 1:50 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: its-time-to-go-big-brother

Truth about BB08 Up Late been Axed

Tim Raines — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:38:40 GMT

Body:

As a very disappointed fan of the decision to axe Big Brother Up Late show on CH10, I wanted to find out why! There was rumours going around on the BB08 forums regarding its reasons for going off air.. but it just didn't make sense, then I read a post on Mike's blog about the real reason it got chopped .. it seems it is because of the controversy over the Late night game shows that the other channels started running after the concept was first started on Up Late with Mike Goldman.. dam you channel 9 and 7!!!!!!!! They destroyed a TV show that actually made Big Brother good. I bet they wouldn't realise or even care less.. but I just wanted to make a point of it since I have been an Up Late fan for many seasons. Like a lot of other fans/people who are now asking the same question.. where is up late? .. rumour has it according to Mike that CH 10 might start some kind of Live Stream on their HD channel, but it just wont be the same without Mike G being the host, having fun every night of the week.. I envy someone with so much energy so late at night .. haha!

Make sure you read his Blog: www.onthemike.com!

Category: Big Brother;General/Misc.;Personal & Friends;TV Shows

Published: 30/04/2008 12:38 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: truth-about-bb08-up-late-been-axed

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/17/mikegoldman342x234_2.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/17/mikegoldman342x234_thumb.jpg

New Toy: Allen & Heath - XONE62 Mixer

Tim Raines — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:00:30 GMT

Body:

Just recently picked up a XONE62 mixer .. I'll call it my new toy! So I decided it was special enough to post an item about it..

The XONE62 has actually been super-seeded by the XONE92, in fact the mixers are pretty much the same.. though the 92 has some cool new features for Midi control and other things, which makes it just that little bit better, and little bit more expensive! While they use the same chassis, XONE92 is the improvement of XONE62.

For what I need, the XONE62 was perfect and besides I got an ok deal from a mate. Anyway..

The one thing I especially love about the XONE62 is the fact that it is one of the only DJ mixers out their with a 4-band EQ on every channel, the control over Audio is just better when you compare to the normal 3-band EQ on most DJ mixers.. this feature makes the mixer stand out from the rest in my opinion, also maybe because the 62 is built by Allen & Heath, globally known for their pro Audio Equipment .. and especially sound desks.

Attached is a small photo of my new mixer, please leave a comment on your thoughts or preferences to DJ mixers if your interested in this topic?

Category: General/Misc.;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends

Published: 29/07/2008 1:00 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: new-toy-allen-amp-heath-xone62-mixer

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/31/Photo_0081_3.jpg

iPhone or iDon't Think So..

Tim Raines — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:27:59 GMT

Body:

By now I think most reader's will be aware that the new 3G version or Version 2 of Apple's iPhone product was released today .. (11-07-2008).

But as many reviewers have already said, it doesn't really live up to the hype it's getting from the fans. The bottom line is; the new iPhone is a glamorous accessory which competes well with it's competitor products but does not out stand them with any great strengths. If you want a nice looking phone to show off to your friends, after re-charging it during your lunch break then your new iPhone is the perfect buy.

Ok So why are we all so Negative about the iPhone? It's not jealousy.. it's just the plain facts!

What's still missing: The consensus is that the iPhone still has some significant deficiencies.

No voice dialling feature
No video recording
A limited camera
No memory-card slot
No copy-and-paste function (it's made by Apple.. so this would be a given .. lol who need's to copy & paste )
No MMS for sending photos to other phones. (my old brick can do this )
No Bluetooth stereo audio
No support for Adobe Flash, Windows Media Video, or Java (It's Apple .. again I am sure they can justify this )

For a full review of the new iPhone please check out this article:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/148113/first_reviews_iphone_3g_improved_but_still_flawed.html

And if you still want one, good luck too you.. I don't like the way they put emphasis on the iPhone when it's no better than any other smart phone already out in the market.

Category: Apple News & Goodies;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Technology News

Published: 11/07/2008 11:26 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: iphone-or-idont-think-so-

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/30/iPhone3G_3.jpg

New Software from Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

Tim Raines — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:42:56 GMT

Body:

Here is something cool, ever thought of turning your photos into 3D worlds, or awesome collages? Get ready to experience something new that the Microsoft Labs team have been working on called Photosynth. It's software which can do amazing things with your photography. Yes it's only a "Tech Preview or BETA" at the moment and Yes it does require some decent hardware to work well on your computer, but please check it out in your spare time. I think you'll be amazed!

Link: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html

Category: Graphic Design & Artwork;Microsoft News;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Photography;Software Development;Technology News;Windows Vista;Windows XP

Published: 9/07/2008 12:42 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: new-software-from-microsoft-live-labs-photosynth

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/28/PhotosynthLogo_2.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/28/PhotosynthLogo_thumb.jpg

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Coming Soon to Windows Automatic Updates

Tim Raines — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:51:17 GMT

Body:

Just a quick update from Microsoft. If your an I.T Administrator, you might want to know that Microsoft will be deploying Windows XP Service Pack 3 via it's Windows Automatic Updates service "shortly" according to a senior technical account managers blog from the company.

I am suggesting that it is an update all I.T Administrators should consider deploying if they haven't already, though due to it's size it's not a very good idea to let users receive it via Automatic Updates, and as general practice with all service pack deployments, they should be performed in a controlled and managed way either by method of existing WSUS deployment or your existing process for deploying Service Packs.

TIP: If you normally let users update there systems using automatic updates services but would like to stop them from receiving the Service Pack 3 update automatically once it has been published, then the Windows Service Pack Blocker Kit might be of interest to you. This simple tool, once deployed will block the service pack from being downloaded to the users system when Automatic Updates does it's next check.

Leave any comments or questions if you need some help with this tool or topic.

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Technology News;Windows XP

Published: 8/07/2008 11:51 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-xp-service-pack-3-coming-soon-to-windows-automatic-updates

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/27/WindowsLogo_2.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/27/WindowsLogo_thumb.jpg

Wanted to Own a TLD Extension? - Well soon you might be able too!

Tim Raines — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:11:41 GMT

Body:

According to this interest article I found, soon you might be able to own/register your very own domain extension, your own .com creation is how I would describe it.

Regulator's at iCANN, the corporation overseeing the Internet are saying that they might agree to a completely open domain name system, which will allow users to own custom top-level extensions such as .xxx

Very interesting article: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7468855.stm

Category: Internet & Web Tools;Technology News

Published: 29/06/2008 3:11 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: wanted-to-own-a-tld-extension-well-soon-you-might-be-able-too

Windows Essential Server 2008 RC0 - Public Preview

Tim Raines — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:01:41 GMT

Body:

Some big news on the EBS 2008 Product front; 13-May-2008 saw the very first public release of Microsoft's newest software solution for the Small-Mid Sized market - Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (codename: Centro).

You must register to begin downloading this Public Preview BETA.

Download Link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DF8666BB-24A4-471B-9D6B-29D21BD0FC1A&displaylang=en

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Small Business;Windows Essential Server 2008;Windows Server 2008

Published: 29/05/2008 1:01 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-essential-server-2008-rc0-public-preview

Windows Small Business Server 2008 RC0 - Public Preview

Tim Raines — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:29:24 GMT

Body:

I am excited to share with my readers some big news on the SBS Server front over at Microsoft. Two days ago Microsoft released its first Public Preview BETA of Windows Small Business Server 2008. This has been defined as Release Candidate 0.

I am also excited to say that you can begin to download the first BETA now! Just register for the download and you can get started.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5c4e9dea-ab34-40f6-8c73-bd94051331b4&displaylang=en&tm

The download is made up of 4 ISO files, which allows you to either run the Standard Edition or the Premium Edition.

Product Keys are available from the download page, including full documentation on TechNet.

Don't forget to check out the System Requirements for SBS 2008.

Just as a Tip, the full download is about 9.5gb so I would suggest sparing sometime or maybe bandwidth if you have a limit from the ISP before considering the download.

For MAPS Partners: I do believe that a set of DVD Disks will get shipped in the July update with this RC0 Beta on them, though there has been speculation on the newsgroups that they might decide to just ship information on "How To Download" instead. I do believe that sending it out on DVD will occur just like it has for all the other Windows Server 2008 Release Candidates prior to the RTM checkpoint. Like me if you can't wait until July.. the Download is the quicker option.

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Small Business;Technology News;Windows Server 2008

Published: 30/05/2008 12:30 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-small-business-server-2008-rc0-public-preview

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/23/Windows_Server_System_logosmall_2.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/23/Windows_Server_System_logosmall_thumb.jpg

Strange Windows Vista File Permission Error

Tim Raines — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:31:16 GMT

Body:

Yesterday I was faced with a strange problem on a brand new Windows Vista desktop system. It was a clean Acer Veriton S460 which I had just configured for a client.

This system only had the basic applications loaded and Microsoft Office 2007. Once it was connect to the network the problem started. When we tried saving files or renaming folders on the network drives it would produce an error message. Their was no issues with the Server Permissions or Security settings on the network shares.

This is what the Error Message says:
The U:\Folder folder does not exist. The file may have been moved or
deleted.
Do you want to create it?

Yes or No

Saying Yes would just reproduce the Message Box. The strange part is that Creating a Folder would work but renaming it would fail.

Weird, but after some research on the Internet, I found others had the same issue. Here is the Solution it seems dodgy but it seems to be working and since I don't like solutions that don't come with facts on why the solution works makes me wonder how reliable it actually is more so like this one since it is a registry edit that provides the fix. Anyway I can confirm it does work and don't be worried to give it a go. Any feedback on this is welcome .. just leave a comment!

Solution:

Open Run and type "regedit" and press enter.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/CSC/Parameters
Create a new DWORD Key in Parameters named FormatDatabase
Now set the new Key with the value of "1" in hex.
Close out of Registry Editor and Reboot your System.

What this is Doing?

Basically my understanding of this quick fix is related to an offline file cache setting that might get removed when an OEM packages the OS for distribution. Using tools like Sysprep. If I find more info on this I will update this post!

Hope it works for you too!

Category: Microsoft Partners;Raines Internet Solutions;Technology News;Windows Vista

Published: 25/05/2008 2:31 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: strange-windows-vista-file-permission-error

Microsoft Research: WorldWide Telescope is Here!

Tim Raines — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:20:29 GMT

Body:

Well, I blogged about the WWT a couple of weeks ago, now it is finally here!

The first Public BETA is available for you to try for Free. This is the first public release of the new software which is going to revolutionise the way we see, learn, and explore the universe as we know it. I have already tried out the new BETA and found very quickly how many hours I could possibly spend navigating around continually discovering something new, one of the features I particularly liked was the Guided Tours. This is a set of pre-configured information tours showing you some of the imagery the software can offer and how it can be used as a excellent learning tool for teachers teaching astronomy in the classroom.

As a Re-cap the WWT is a Project from the Microsoft Research Team, which is going to be released as a free resource to allow us to explore the universe using some of the best satellite imagery on offer.

Whether your a hobbiest, teacher or just curious about learning more on our rather large universe, I strongly recommend taking the time to check out the WorldWide Telescope. There is still some improvements to go on the rendering and loading times for exploring and displaying the imagery but keep in mind it is still BETA software! A fast Internet link is recommended.

The Download Link is below:

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/experienceIt/ExperienceIt.aspx?exp=true

Category: Education;Microsoft News;Technology News

Published: 15/05/2008 1:20 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: microsoft-research-worldwide-telescope-is-here

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/20/image_2.png
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/20/image_thumb.png

Road Trip to Sorrento

Tim Raines — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:24:53 GMT

Body:

Loz and I had a nice drive down to Sorrento this weekend, the weather wasn't the best but it is always good to get out and see the Victorian coast line!

We got Vanilla slices from the famous cafe/cake shop at Sorrento, and had a nice lunch too. We also stopped at Mornington on the way .. didn't realise how many shops they have down there now! (it's been a while )

On the way home we decided to take the scenic route, via Auther's Seat. It was a bit gloomy because of the fog as we got higher up the mountain.

Anyway,

Thanks Lauren for suggesting the idea to go for a drive down the coast .. I had fun!

Category: General/Misc.;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends;Tim & Lauren

Published: 11/05/2008 12:24 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: road-trip-to-sorrento

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/19/RoadTriptoSorrento2008002_4.jpg
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/19/RoadTriptoSorrento2008002_thumb_1.jpg

Need a New DNS Checking Tool?

Tim Raines — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:05:28 GMT

Body:

You might have noticed recently, like I have; That DNSstuff.com now charge a fee to use their DNS Tools which I used to find really handy; as a Web Host I used the tools to check the status or configuration of a client's domain name. It seem's someone else agree's with me, it's not worth paying for a service that I don't regularly use (as in many times a day or many times in a month). This link gives you some excellent alternatives to DNSstuff.com.

Check this Out:

http://vidmar.net/weblog/archive/2008/03/23/free-dns-report-alternatives.aspx

Category: General/Misc.;Internet & Web Tools;Web Development

Published: 11/05/2008 12:04 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: need-a-new-dns-checking-tool

News on New SMB Windows Server Options for Partners

Tim Raines — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Body:

Sorry for the slow update on this one, it's a little bit of old news now.. but I still wanted to share it anyway.

For all of us Microsoft SBSC's, there is some excitement building for the upcoming releases of two new products on the SMB Stage, Windows Small Business Server 2008 and the introduction of Windows Essential Server for the Mid-Sized market space.

This mean's more sales opportunities! These two new products will fall under a new family called the Windows Essential Server Solutions family of products. Microsoft are hoping this will drive more productivity and efficiency to their SMB clients with better value for money software packages.

Included with these products is the new release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 which will tie together again the true value of the product line. Along with products such as Microsoft Forefront for Exchange, ISA Server and Systems Centre Essentials can be seen in the Essential Server release, things seem to be only getting better! The way they have tied together the 3-4 server install process is fantastic!

Here is a blog which you can check out to keep up to speed with developments of both SMB offerings which are scheduled to be out on the shelves later in year.

http://blogs.technet.com/sbsaustralia/

And a Video which talks about Centro before it renamed from it's code name to Essential Server:

Open Video about Windows Essential Server

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Technology News

Published: 29/04/2008 12:47 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: news-on-new-smb-windows-server-options-for-partners

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/16/movie_run_2.png
http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/16/movie_run_thumb.png

Looking at Windows Mobile 6.1 & MS Deepfish

Tim Raines — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:48:48 GMT

Body:

Just found a new clip from Microsoft which shows some of the Windows Mobile team demonstrating the new release of Windows Mobile 6.1 software and a new product called Microsoft Deepfish, I though the Videos were worth sharing, enjoy. Both videos are available from the play list in the Soapbox player below.

Microsoft DeepFish is a new product which will allow full rich content viewing of web sites from a Mobile device using a Server-Side generator to serve basically image like data to the device, this will allow optimal viewing of content rich Web 2.0 sites on light devices like smart phones.

There is two video's in the Playlist don't forget to check out Both!

Open Video Clips

Category: Microsoft News;Technology News

Published: 25/04/2008 2:48 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: looking-at-windows-mobile-6-1-amp-ms-deepfish

Attachments: http://tim.raines.com.au/Lists/Posts/Attachments/14/movie_run_thumb.png

Protection Against SQL Server Injection Attacks

Tim Raines — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:10:51 GMT

Body:

Hey Again..

Here is an interesting topic, if your a web developer and use MS SQL Server and or other SQL Database software in your applications, how much thought do you give to ensure your application is 99% safe from a SQL Injection Attack, I'll say not a lot? Or tend to forget (me)?

SQL Injection Attacks are when a end-user attempts to run malicious SQL statements on your applications database to programmatically alter it's behaviour extend it's functionality to their own gain, or possibly extract or remove data completely from the back-end. Not something I would think any developer wants to have happen intentionally?

These attacks can happen on the most "patched" or "up-to-date" servers around, the attacker is not finding a hole in the back-end software; in-fact they are breaking your front-end, most common SQL Server Injection attacks occur from an applications front-end public interface. Yes your code!

Think about this simple concept; say I have a search box which looks up a table in a database for products, I have used a basic POSTBACK event to reload my script to pass the contents of the search box to a simple SQL Query on my table that contains the products to be searched. Something like this:

SELECT * FROM tbl_Products WHERE Product_Name = ' + InputBox.Text ;

What if one of the Users of my application enters: 'DELETE * FROM tbl_Products' ; into my search box?

You can see this type of input could cause real havoc in your application, again it will vary on the type of SQL Back-end you use and the server-side language engine (ASP.NET, PHP, C#) etc. But with the example above, if it were an ASP.NET application with a MS SQL back-end, seeing's how MS SQL Server will allow multiple statements be executed in the one query your application is at serious risk of an Injection Attack. All it takes is your script to pass the attackers commands to your query function and then given the level of access the script has to perform operations in the database, they have taken control.

This Article will show you some helpful ways to better protect your application from attack, some of the concepts can apply to languages and SQL server software other than MS technologies so have a read for some ideas:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998271.aspx

Category: Software Development;Web Development

Published: 29/04/2008 12:10 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: protection-against-sql-server-injection-attacks

Microsoft Response Point

Tim Raines — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:51:27 GMT

Body:

For those moving into or are already using VoIP telephony systems will know that there is lots of hardware out there to choose from and all with their own unique feature sets. Microsoft Response Point is the new "embedded software" offering from Microsoft specifically aimed at the SMB market of up-to 50 employees. Vendors can build there phone solutions using the new Response Point software to help simplify those high end feature sets, typically seen in enterprise telephony systems for the SMB Market instead. The Embedded OS has only just left BETA late last year, we have some of the larger vendor's already taking there first product lines to market such as companies like D-Link, Quanta and Aastra. This brings an exciting new twist on the VoIP market and I think will really step up the benchmark for those vendors who play in the SMB market to bring there products up to scratch with what the enterprise are using. Until now I have been reluctant to purchase a VoIP system simply because of the limited feature set or interoperability the small solutions offered. Now I am definitely reconsidering.

For more information on Microsoft Response Point, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint

Category: Microsoft News;Microsoft Partners;Microsoft Small Business Specialists;Technology News

Published: 17/03/2008 12:51 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: microsoft-response-point

Rock The Hill - Don't Miss It!

Tim Raines — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:15:03 GMT

Body:

Just helping get the word out about the next event for the local committee which I belong too called Rock The Hill Productions, we hold Youth Events in the Nillumbik Shire supported by the Victorian Government program called FreeZa.

Our Organisation holds about 5 Event's each year on average, and the next one scheduled is on May 17th 2008 at the Panton Hill Hall. I will attach the event flyer to this post for all the details. I will add this event to my calendar as well.

And for More Information about RTH please visit:

Category: General/Misc.;Music & Lifestyle;Personal & Friends

Published: 14/04/2008 1:08 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: rock-the-hill-dont-miss-it

Microsoft will work with the Eclipse Foundation on Interoperability Issues

Tim Raines — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:23:21 GMT

Body:

This is an interesting article I was reading that talks about Microsoft jumping on board with the widely used open-source development environment called Eclipse; they seem to have made a start on integrating Visual Studio with Eclipse to assist open-source developers with a greater toolset. It's still early days to say specifically what this means to dev's but an interesting article none the less.

http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=46830&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=0&hide_js=1

Category: Microsoft News;Software Development

Published: 13/03/2008 12:23 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: microsoft-will-work-with-the-eclipse-foundation-on-interoperability-issues

News on the WorldWide Telescope (WWT)

Tim Raines — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:34:14 GMT

Body:

This is a new one for those Google Earth buff's out there, Microsoft Research have been working hard for some time now on a new software platform called the WorldWide Telescope (WWT). This project to my understanding is a concept similar to Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth which will allow us to explore the universe with a very rich experience and learn a lot more about space. The image data they claim to be making available free will be released later this year. For more info see http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Category: Microsoft News;Technology News

Published: 13/03/2008 12:40 AM

BlogTitleForUrl: news-on-the-worldwide-telescope-wwt

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (Developer Preview)

Tim Raines — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:25:49 GMT

Body:

I am very excited about the new version of Internet Explorer! Version 8 is due to hit the shelf's later in the year; with it a feature set that some might consider "un-expected" when compared to previous releases of the web browser.

The BETA 1 is now available for Developers and Designers, I strongly suggest you start using it if you're traditionally used to developing web applications for IE 5 >7. A Lot has changed and the way I see it, it's about time! A majority of the new features are not really new at all; they are just what a web browser should be.

I am directly talking about W3C Standards; IE 8 will now fully comply with W3C standards, including new support for CSS 2.1 and the exciting new HTML 5 standard (that's going to be interesting)

Some have criticised this drastic move by Microsoft claiming that they are turning their backs on their own protocols and standards which once were seen as "universal" but I disagree, if enterprise developers who typical worked on in-line business applications for intranet environments did not build their app's to be fully compatible with the standards, then that's their own problem, they will need to deal with. It's not like IE 8 and it's standards compliance mode is anything new to its competitor's like Firefox, who have being trying there best to keep the browser as standards compatible as possible. I have been an IE User from day one, but I too see the need for standards conformity and I am just glad Microsoft see this now and not later, Web 2.0 experiences will only get better with standards compliant browsers, that's basically it in a nut shell.

10 Reasons IE 8 will be my choice of Web 2.0 Browser:

Web Activities feature (Unique feature of IE 8 Using Add-on's in a new way) Click Here for Demo
Web Slices feature (Utilising standard HTML-compliant tag's to keep users up-to-date with part's of a web page) – This is particular good since it is an example of how a feature which typically would have required some IE-Only code, making other browsers behave incorrectly, now uses standard DIV tag's so other W3C compliant browser will not get confused and simply ignore the IE 8 feature code. (Good for the End-User, better for the Developer!!) Click Here for Demo
HTML 5 Support (A new W3C standard introduced, builds on a couple of things, XML and the existing XHTML document structures) - HTML 5 offers extensive new features for developers including improved features when working with Forms and Data submission on web applications with-in the Mobile Environment. (I will talk about this some more in a future blog post)
CSS 2.1 (Nice new CSS standard for greater Web 2.0 experiences)
Cross-Browser-Cross-Platform standardisation (Due to the Standards compliant nature of IE 8, developers will no long waste time worrying about double the work when making web app's compatible in browsers other than IE)
Increased AJAX support (There is some really cool new Ajax support features that no other browser has currently – things like: The ability to Navigate Ajax call's using the back button, instead of hitting back and it reloads the Ajax page from the beginning!) That's something I sure have wanted for a while, most user's don't realise they are using a dynamic Ajax application and hit the back button in the browser naturally. Click Here for Demo
Protection from deceptive URLs masquerading as legitimate brands (IE 8 highlights domain's in the URL from the address bar, helping end-user's better identify the site they are on)
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is another new security feature which had been left out of IE 7 due to compatibility issues. This is now support for Windows Vista SP1 systems and Windows Server 2008. (This is a method of restricting code-execution from non-executable slot's in memory, which is commonly a tactic attackers use to exploit the browser with browser-based attacks)
Cross Domain Request using XDomainRequest (A new secure way for developers to reduce web server exploits when requesting data from other sites) – Concepts like image hot-linking and the use of IFRAME etc.
For the BETA there is an emulate IE 7 mode, which is useful for developers to get there sites moved across from IE 7 compatible to IE 8. (This may not be available on the Full Release, knowing Microsoft and they way they like to enable backwards-compatibility – the Emulate mode might get left in there? Or a special full release developer version might become available? I am not sure.

Some of the other Developer tools for IE 8 include a JavaScript debugger built-in which includes the standard debug features like break's, watch points and step through code features, plus more in-depth viewing of web page source code to view which CSS applies to what and drilling down on a HTML object and seeing it's properties at run-time. Demo of Some of the Developer Tools

For more info and a download link see:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/

If you have any questions about my Post just reply using the comment's section below. I will post some more articles on some of the new features specifics as I find time!

Category: Microsoft News;Web Development

Published: 13/04/2008 2:25 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: internet-explorer-8-beta-1-developer-preview

Safari Web Browser on Microsoft Windows – “Just Wrong”

Tim Raines — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:37:15 GMT

Body:

So if you're up to speed with the latest release of Apple's Safari Web Browser, you might be aware that the new version will now run on a Windows-based PC as well. That might seem 'OK', since many Windows Users seem to have a problem with using Internet Explorer, and well I guess it gives users yet another web browser option for there system… (I hope the sarcasm was picked up there)

But for those less experienced users, or the keen iPod fan's who have loaded on the iTunes software for their PC's, will realised that Safari has found it's way onto there system if a Software Update has been done recently. This is because Apple decided to push Safari for Windows by default for all customers using Apple Software Update; the program which tells you a new version of iTunes or QuickTime is ready for download. If the software wasn't already bad enough, sneaking on a new Web Browser is just simply wrong. Apart from the sly behaviour of the software being checked as a default "update" it just puts even less confidence in users to of software update tools. Software Vendor's provide update tools to improve the original product a customer purchased, not to give users un-wanted new products.

Users already have a general dislike for "Update Tools" provided by vendors. For Apple to push out this type of update knowing dam well the audience size they will reach (looking at iTunes Users alone), in my opinion, is just simply wrong.

Looks like the CEO of Mozilla agrees with me, http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/03/21/Mozilla-CEO-Apple-wrong-in-pushing-Safari-to-Windows-users_1.html

Category: Apple News & Goodies;Web Development

Published: 24/03/2008 7:37 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: safari-web-browser-on-microsoft-windows-–-“just-wrong”

How To: Install OS X 10.5 Leopard on your PC!

Tim Raines — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:25:29 GMT

Body:

I found this article on the net the other day, when looking for something completely different! That's nothing unusual for me.

Anyway I am yet to try it out; when I give it a go I will report back and let everyone know how it went.

Here is the link to the Article for those who are interested:

http://dailyapps.net/2007/12/hack-attack-install-leopard-on-your-pc-in-just-one-step/

A couple of people were asking me where on Mininova can they find the ISO download; Here is the link to the latest version, iATKOS_v1.0ir2.iso

Direct ISO Download Link:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1226423

Category: Apple News & Goodies

Published: 24/03/2008 2:17 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: how-to-install-os-x-10-5-leopard-on-your-pc

ElectroLovers.net – Dance & House Music Community

Tim Raines — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:16:56 GMT

Body:

Hey Just thought I would give one of my sites a bit of a plug, if you into House or Electro/Dance music come and join our growing community of users sharing and talking about music, gig's clubs and pubs, what's hot and what's not!

The site is: www.electrolovers.net

Also, recently I posted a mini-mix I recorded for you to check out, let me know what you think! – Direct Link: http://www.electrolovers.net/thread.php?postid=868#post868

Category: Music & Lifestyle

Published: 29/03/2008 2:16 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: electrolovers-net-–-dance-amp-house-music-community

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 & Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Tim Raines — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:10:57 GMT

Body:

It's a win, win situation for all parties when we talk about Microsoft's SharePoint System. Small-Medium sized business benefits, large business and even the enterprise, but that's not all, the possibilities which the new versions of SharePoint have on offer are endless. This has brought so much more interest for Partners who work in the System Integration vertical. SharePoint 2007 has been name a "must-have" technology by many critics. The attention SharePoint has created in all industries has been the most it's had since its existence in 2001 according to Microsoft.

This solution is the most complete, dynamic and enterprise quality I have seen and worked with ever, I can't even start to imagine what they have in store for us, with the next version to become available some time in 2009.

This is the article that inspired me to write a blog post about my passion for SharePoint Solutions, please check it out; http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi?pagetosend=/export/home/httpd/htdocs/news/2008/032608-microsoft-sharepoint.html&pagename=/news/2008/032608-microsoft-sharepoint.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032608-microsoft-share

Category: Microsoft Partners

Published: 27/03/2008 10:10 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: microsoft-sharepoint-server-2007-amp-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0

Happy Easter!

Tim Raines — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:42:08 GMT

Body:

Just wishing my friends a Happy Easter and hope the animal with the chocolate was good to you J

Cheers,

Rainesy

Category: Personal & Friends

Published: 24/03/2008 2:40 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: happy-easter

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 for 2010

Tim Raines — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:59:24 GMT

Body:

It looks like the development for the next version of Microsoft Windows is making progress as we get news of Milestone 1 (M1) completion. This new version is likely to be hitting shelves sometime in 2010 and will soon become the successor of Windows Vista. Don't get too worried if you haven't hoped on the Vista wave yet! You still have plenty of time, but as we enter this new era of Operating Systems and connected Software platforms (SaaS) also known as Software as a Service. We will see the gap between releases of platform software come closer an closer together, so don't be against it, it's a trend worth following, trust me it's reasoning will be revealed in the coming years. Don't be negative otherwise someone might end up saying to you "I told you so".

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Confirms-Windows-7-for-2010-No-Word-on-Windows-7-M2-80768.shtml

Category: Microsoft News

Published: 14/03/2008 7:59 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: microsoft-confirms-windows-7-for-2010

Welcome to MY BLOG!

Tim Raines — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:50:54 GMT

Body:

Hey…

This is my new internet blog which I will used to talk and share mostly technology related info on, it's a pretty easy address to remember http://tim.raines.com.au/ and if your already a keen blogger or use stuff like facebook or maybe have an RSS reader or like myself have my RSS news come to me in Outlook 2007, you can subscribe to this blog so you don't have to come back as often but still read the latest crap I post where ever you are..

I have also setup a Public Events Calendar. Figured if there is something I have happening which is important enough to share I will post it in my calendar, or maybe if its an event that's not related to me but I think is worth while sharing I will post that too.. So check that out as well when you get a chance. – That's about it for my first post... Enjoy.

Category: Personal & Friends

Published: 12/03/2008 11:50 PM

BlogTitleForUrl: welcome-to-my-blog