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Monday, 22 February 2010
MICROSOFT PATCHES, INTRODUCES BLUE SCREEN
The latest patch from Microsoft has introduced a bug that causes a never-ending reboot loop in some XP machines. The patch, MS10-015, is intended to address important vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel, but has instead treated some users to the dreaded blue screen of death.Starting up in safe mode does not appear to allow users to circumvent the issue, though booting up with a Windows CD or DVD and accessing the recovery console to remove the update has been found to solve it. At the time of writing it’s unclear why this affects some XP machines and not others, though this will surely become apparent in time.
(Source: El Reg)
Epicentre Says: “Epicentre advises waiting for a further patch to resolve this issue, though of course this too may bring unexpected problems. Critical flaws seem to be on the increase of late, so caution is as always advised when updating. It is not uncommon for fixes to bring with them new and more serious bugs and flaws.”
Friday, 19 February 2010
VISUAL STUDIO 2010 RC ON RADAR
The release candidate of the latest version of Visual Studio 2010 will soon be available with Lab Management 2010 arriving shortly after, following a delay to the release cycle. Additional testing was required as a result of criticism of the pre-release code pushing the release back over 2 months, in turn pushing the final retail release back to April 2010. Many beta testers reported poor performance with virtual memory use being flagged as a key issue, as well as crashes within Silverlight environments. Further to this, memory leaks were uncovered in the preview code. The release candidate test cycle should reveal whether these issues have been successfully addressed.(Epicentre Says: El Reg)
Epicentre Says: “The integrated environment and new debugging system look set to make Visual Studio a much more powerful tool than previous versions, but only if these issues have been fully resolved. The release will also see the full debut of .NET Framework 4, which should open up a wide range of new features and functionality for developers.”
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
GIANT PATCH TUESDAY
Microsoft’s next Patch Tuesday release will feature 13 bulletins addressing 26 vulnerabilities, with fixes for Windows 2000 and above. Five of the fixes are listed as Critical, with a further seven marked as Important plus one Moderate fix. The recently revealed 17-year old bug that has been lingering in all versions of Windows will be patched with this release, though the more recently-discovered SMB flaw that can allow remote execution of code on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 will not be fixed this time.(Source: Ars Technica)
Epicentre Says: “Epicentre advises updating all Windows machines with these updates as soon as they are released. With the recent slew of critical vulnerabilities discovered in both Windows and IE, Microsoft has quite a battle ahead. We may see more out-of-cycle releases in future if the frequency of flaw reporting continues.”
WHOOPS, IT’S OFFICE 2010
An apparently accidental posting to one of Microsoft’s websites revealed details of an upcoming upgrade deal for users purchasing Office 2007 between the 5th of March and the 30th of September, which offers them a free upgrade to an equivalent version of Office 2010 (available in the now-standard Microsoft flavours).The post has since been removed but a cached version of the page is still available via Google. The program was stated as starting on the 5th of March, though an actual release date for the 2010 edition of Office has not yet been revealed.
(Source: El Reg)
Epicentre Says: “This apparent gaffe will likely kick-start a small surge in purchases of Office 2007, with many users hoping to cash in on the offer. Microsoft are also expected to sell a DVD version of the software for a currently undetermined price to those that take up the offer, though uptake on this may be lower than the digital upgrade.”
MICROSOFT MOONLIGHTING
A preview version of Moonlight 3.0, the open source equivalent of the Silverlight plugin, has been released for early testing. Features released in the third version of Silverlight have now been included, with greater API support such as for running content outside of a browser. Silverlight 4.0 is also already in the works, with beta code released to testing in November 2009.Both plug ins are hoping to rival Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash plug-in, though the need to do so may soon be a moot point as support for HTML5 increases. Microsoft have begun to push Silverlight towards the mobile market, with a release expected sometime in 2010, and early code reviews suggest the plugin boasts some significant power. This may cause concern for Apple, who continue to refuse to allow Adobe to bring Flash to their iPhone range.
(Source: El Reg)
Epicentre Says “Both Silverlight and Moonlight face an uphill struggle against Adobe’s mighty Flash, and with HTML5 beginning to gain pace the need for any such proprietary plugins may be completely removed. Development for Silverlight has been slight in comparison to Flash, which made its way to market years ahead of Microsoft’s offering.”
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