Microsoft Will Release Windows Vista SP1 Early 2008

Performance, compatibility, and reliability have been among the biggest complaints of Windows Vista users, and the service pack will focus on those three major trouble areas. After dancing around the subject for months, Microsoft finally opened up Wednesday and said it will release the first Service Pack for Windows Vista in the first quarter of 2008 with a wider beta version coming in "a few weeks."


"We're feeling good about Windows Vista," said David Zipkin, a Microsoft senior product manager for Windows Client, in an interview. He pointed out that among other metrics, Windows Vista had 12 security issues in its first six months compared with Windows XP's 36 during its first six months. "At the same time, we are getting notes back that some people are having not so great experiences."

Microsoft began testing early pre-beta versions of Vista SP1 and XP SP3 earlier this month with approximately 100 testers, but copies of both quickly began appearing online to the chagrin of Zipkin. Some fixes in the leaks will not appear in the final versions of the updates. "I think it's unfortunate that they were leaked," he said. "At this point in the game, that kind of information can give misdirection and misinformation to our customers."

source: InformationWeek

Change the Windows Vista Power Buttons to Shut Down

The default action for the Power button on the start menu in Windows Vista is Sleep, which isn't necessarily useful for everybody. You can configure this setting easily by using the advanced power settings panel, which is a little tricky to get to normally, but we'll take the shortcut.

Open a command prompt (type cmd into the start menu search bar), and then type in the following:

powercfg.cpl,1

You could also take the long route (Control Panel \ Power Options \ Change Plan Settings \ Change Advanced Power Settings)

Once you get get to this dialog, browse down as shown to "Power buttons and lid"

From here, you can change the options:

• Power button action - Changes the hardware power button action
• Start menu power button - Changes the power button on the Start Menu

You can change the power button to either Sleep, Hibernate or Shut Down, or even nothing for the hardware power button.

source: http://www.howtogeek.com/

NBA star Kobe Bryant visits Manila Sept 5

National Basketball Association (NBA) superstar Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers is set to visit Manila on Sept. 5 where he will launch a new brand of shoes and conduct a basketball clinic to young Filipino basketeers.

In a statement, Melissa Crucillo, Nike Philippines country marketing manager, said the Manila visit is part of Kobe Bryant’s Supernatural Asia Tour 2007 where he will unveil the new version of Kobe II, part of the Fall 2007 basketball footwear product line. The shoes will hit the Asian markets on Sept 6.

Crucillo added that part of Kobe's Manila visit will also include the basketball superstar meeting kids from Eliseo Belen Charity at Nike Park, The Fort at 2 p.m.

From there, Kobe will headline the Kobe Supernatural Manila Event at the Phil Sports Arena (formerly Ultra) where he will share his training regimen with young Filipino ballers. Gates will open at 3 p.m.

"Kobe Bryant serves as a basketball icon, inspiration and role-model to a lot of our young Filipino athletes and Nike Philippines is proud to bring him closer to his fans," Crucillo said.

"The one-day visit is developed as an opportunity for Kobe to work with Filipino kids and to inspire them to work towards realizing their hoop dreams," Crucillo added.

Crucillo said tickets to the Kobe Supernatural Manila Event will be distributed for one day only on September 1 at 12 noon at Nike Park, The Fort. She said tickets are free of charge on a first come, first serve basis and only two tickets will be given per person.

Kobe fans can also tune in to radio stations, Magic 89.9, Wave 89.1, RX 93.1, and NU 107.5 to win tickets to see Kobe in action.

"In addition, Nike will be launching a special Kobe Tour Tee for the occasion, which will be available on September 1st at select Nike stores," she said.

From Manila, Kobe will visit Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, China.

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/

Customizing your Vista BootUp Look

There's actually a hidden hidden Windows Vista bootup screen which is a 24 bit bitmap graphics file. The picture below shows the default "GUI bootscreen".

This is the aurora bootup screen, if you tweaked the settings. All you have to do is type msconfig into the start menu search box, and hit enter. Click the Boot tab, and then check the “No GUI boot” checkbox.

click to view larger picture

This is the option you need to check on it. Likewise this, requires next restart to work.

Now, since you all will be wondering - why you are doing this? Because, you can actually customize this screen futher, with your own graphics. For more information in doing that head over to WinMatrix.

source: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12083

Malu Fernandez on OFWs

Malu Fernandez, an irresponsible, elitist, bigoted and discriminating columnist of People Asia and Manila Standard Today (& definitely not a relative of mine), is one of the favorite topics of Filipino bloggers recently. Why? Because of her infamous article that was published in People Asia Magazine that received thousands of comments. If you still don't know her then you have to read part of her article:

"However I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrists at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them."

"While I was on the plane (where the seats were too small I had bruises on my legs), my only consolation was the entertainment on the small flat screen in front of me. But it was busted, so I heaved a sigh, popped my sleeping pills and dozed off to the sounds of gum chewing and endless yelling of "HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga saan ka? Domestic helper ka rin ba?" I thought I had died and God had sent me to my very own private hell."

"On my way back, I had to bravely take the economy flight once more. This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air."

"Just recently, I wrote a funny article in my magazine column and my friends thought it was hilarious. It was humorous and quite tongue-in-cheek, or at least I thought so, until the magazine got a few e-mails from people who didn’t get the meaning of my acerbic wit. The bottom line was just that I had offended the reader’s socioeconomic background. If any of these people actually read anything thicker then a magazine they would find it very funny. Most people don’t get the fact that they need bitches like me to shake up their world, otherwise their lives would be boring and mediocre. I obviously write for the a certain target audience and if what I write offends you, just stop reading.

Although it may sound elitist to you the fact is this country is built on the foundation of haves, have-nots and wannabes. One group will never get the culture of the other. Although I could mention that it is easier to understand someone who has a lower socioeconomic background that would entail a whole other page and frankly I don’t want to be someone to bridge the gap between socioeconomic classes. I leave that to the politicians in my family who believe they can actually help. Now I seriously ask you, am I being a diva or are people around me just lacking in common sense? Perhaps it’s a little of both!"

Unlike my family, I think Ms. Fernandez is fortunate to belong to the elite group, but I don't think she has the privileged to discriminate those OFWs.

Malu Fernandez and the POLITICIANS in her family should be thankful to those OFWs who sacrificed a lot of things not only to help their family but also this country. OFWs in the Middle East alone brings more than $10 Million dollars to this country, that's why I'm proud to be a son of an OFW who works in Israel.

I really think that she is not the only person to blame for this article. Her editors should also be blame for this. I don't think it's freedom of speech, you have to be responsible with what you are writing. And if the Filipino owes an apology, this should not only come from Malu but also from the magazine and newspapers she belong to. Their editors shows lack of responsiblity to their readers.

There are other lifestyle columnist out there like Maurice Archache and Tessa Prieto-Valdez who never insulted OFWs in their columns. This people have good breeding and don't boast they're riches.

Anyway, an article from abs-cbn news website said that she resigned from her job after several complaints sent via the Internet and other types of media.

Malu Fernandez is another reason why Filipinos are not progressing because of being a racist. The sad news: it's against ourselves.

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows Vista is the latest operating system from Microsoft. This operating system was first released in November 2006 (RTM) and was released in retail in January 30, 2007. This operating system contains hundreds of new and reworked features, the most significant is Windows Aero (glass effect!). But just like it's predecessor, the Windows XP, Windows Vista got a lot of bad review from different people due to hardware and software incompatibility. And a lot of people, especially those who own Dell computers (I know I'm part of the tech support!), wants to go back to Windows XP. And until now, a lot of people are using Windows XP.
Before the RTM of Vista in 2006, there were rumors in Microsoft Philippines's Forums about Windows XP Service Pack 3. It was a friend of mine who works for MS Phil that confirmed there was no service pack 3 released during that time. An article from Microsoft Watch confirmed that the release of WinXP Service Pack 3 is in latter half of 2007.

While browsing MS Phil forums today I noticed a post from Sir Jojo Ayson, Senior Product Manager of MS Phil, that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is set to release in 2008. It came from an article in www.computerworld.com.

While browsing the internet about Windows XP Service Pack 3, I bumped into www.msbetas.org, which I think have the Beta version of Service Pack 3 Build 3180. They even posted a screenshot (check the one below) to show that it is for real.

To get a copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3, just go to their website.

Disclaimer: Since it is in beta, there could be some errors that you might encounter when you install this on your system.

From livejournal to blogspot

Before switching to blogspot, I used livejournal services for my blogging. Just recently, I noticed that the title of my blog has a misspelled word. Instead of the word "curious", my blog's title is "Rambles of a curios mind." I wanted to change not only that word, but also the word "rambles." I think that "ramblings" is more appropriate than "rambles." I've spent more than 5 hours in two days searching for the option to change the title of my blog but never found the option for that. I believe that a simple option like that is easy for a somehow "techie" guy like me to find. And because I was upset spending so much time doing that, I decided to sign-up here and discontinue posting blogs in my livejournal account. And that's the simple story why I'm here right now.