TWITTER

Have you heard of the service on the web called Twitter? It's a service for you, your friends, and co-workers to stay connected by exchanging quick frequent answers to one simple question, such as WHAT are you doing?

It's marketed as social networking and "micro-blogging," but is also useful for other communications. It is usually limited to 140 characters per string of communication, which keeps it short and simple.

Let's say that you and group of colleagues are working on a project that has you scattered over the continent. With Twitter it's possible to update everyone or request a quick answer, pertinent to all with a "tweet." To find out more or actually use Twitter go here:

Twitter

Just over a fortnight ago, AT&T launched Free Wi-Fi for Laptop Connect customers. Qualifying Laptop Connect customers will now be able to access greater than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots free of charge. This would include 7000 participating Starbucks and restaurants, airports, hotels etc.

Free Wi-Fi

To see where Wi-Fi is going around the globe and how some companies are inventing and creating new solutions for coverage and bandwidth, visit this site:

Wavion

A follow up article on the implementation of Wavion can be found here.

Wavion Beamforms Backhaul

In mainstream PC-land, Microsoft has indicated that it will keep its XP OS available into the future for average desktops and laptops, such as the types coming like the Eee Box and PC's designed for simple tasks like email and surfing the web:

Nettops

Just in case you thought Microsoft was through with its past ventures into anti-piracy apps we now can look forward to SPS (Software Protection Platform). This little beast will determine if your copy of Windows Vista is legitimate or not. If not be prepared for a bumpy ride.

First you will lose performance enhancements along with antispywire and virus protection. After the slow death has begun, then you will see further functionality reduced and then be locked out of your own computer after 60 minute periods of dysfunction.

Nice, eh?  This is sure to grab some honest folks with real keys into the pain process.  You can be sure this will probably follow its way into Vista's replacement (OS7?) which is in development. Vista will be here for a while but not as long as XP, which is being predicted to last until 2014.

Pirates Beware

On the other hand Apple Computer has released a large update to OS 10.5, revving it up to 10.5.3. The Mac OSV 10.5.3 combo update weighs in at a hefty 536 MB and introduces one big flaw for CS3 Photoshop users.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 Combo Update

One large caveat before you update. If you use Photoshop CS3 you will want to wait:

"The Apple Mac OS X client upgrade to 10.5.3 introduces a severe problem, which has been reported by customers and reproduced by HELIOS. We strongly recommend not to upgrade to 10.5.3 until a solution to the problem is available. Images saved from Photoshop CS3 can get corrupted visually (stripes or similar in the image) or even structurally so that they cannot be opened again in Photoshop or another application. HELIOS can reproduce this problem with Photoshop CS3. According to customer reports, also other CS3 applications seem to be affected. The problem occurs with Apple-based AFP servers as well as with HELIOS EtherShare."

Ooops.

That is it for this week. Happy twittering, and enjoy safe computing until next time. Lately these articles have been short, concise and forgive me, to the pointJ

Marco