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

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

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

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

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

No news on the Vista service pack.

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

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

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

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

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

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.
reminded me of a link Ian had the other day http://www.blackle.com

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

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

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

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

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