Latest Archives - Page 13 of 40 - The Force Field Podcast

Firefox 3 Release set for June 17

June 13, 2008 by Rick Savoia

(TheForceField.Net ) June 13, 2008 — Firefox 3.0, the next incarnation of the popular and powerful web browser from The Mozilla Foundation, is scheduled for official release Tuesday, June 17, 2008. According to Mike Beltzner, Mozilla user experience lead, the new browser is ready for prime time.

"Whenever we’re asked 'when is Firefox going to be released' we endeavor to answer to the best of our abilities, but the truth of the matter is that we’ll only ever ship 'when it's ready', Beltzner wrote on the developer blog Wednesday. "After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we’re proud to announce that we’re ready."

New features of the browser will include more secure browsing, simplified and easy to use features and improved performance. The new version is based on Gecko 1.9, a web rendering platform that has been in development for 34 months.

To celebrate the release of Firefox 3, Mozilla announced Firefox Download Day 2008, an effort set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software application in 24 hours. A web site was created to host the event and encourage participation on a local level. As of Friday, over one million pledges across the world were recorded.

The Force Field will participate in Firefox Download Day 2008 with a launch party. A page and forum will be available at TheForceField.net to download and discuss the new browser the day before the launch.

NY State AG battles Dell

May 29, 2008 by Todd Hughes

NY State has charged that the computer retail giant has engaged in “false and deceptive advertising” in regards to free financing and next-day/on-site service. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has set up a web site where those who feel they were mislead by Dell can submit their complaints. These complaints will be used to gauge how much restitution Dell and Dell Financial Services owe these customers. New York residents can use the link below to contact Mr. Cuomo’s office and file an official complaint:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/dell_comp/index.html

Live Webinar June 5: Free Giveaway

May 16, 2008 by Rick

EBIZQ invites you to attend a MICROSOFT, PNMSOFT and NEUDESIC Virtual Event:

"Achieving Process Optimization and Efficiency in Manufacturing – a BPM Best Practice"

We welcome you to attend a complimentary, live virtual event sponsored by Microsoft that demonstrates an approach to BPM (Business Process Management), discipline of process optimization, and the technology to automate it all.

Do you need to deliver your products & manage customers more effectively?
Are you looking to strengthen your approach to audit & compliance?
Are manual processes causing inefficiencies?

Through an efficient process management, organizations can achieve a better performance while demonstrating cost reduction. Whether automating a process in the operational environment, supporting compliance or administration, the ability to design and automate processes in a simple way is not only powerful but is now achievable!

Transforming manual processes to automated workflows in areas such as shop-floor control, quality assurance, or customer requests, can provide the answer to both visibility and process improvement.
In a focused web seminar held by Microsoft and its preferred partners, we will discuss the most common issues in manufacturing while demonstrating a solution to overcome some of the most up-to-date problems that the industry faces.

During the web seminar we will demonstrate solutions, share the experience of other companies in the industry and answer any question that you may have.
Attend this webinar and learn:

Ways to achieve compliance and governance in manufacturing organizations while minimizing bureaucracy
A solution to constantly monitor and improve workflows and processes that are either mission critical or follow the business changes
If your company still have manual processes that are labor intensive and/or paper based
Ways to achieve process improvement while reducing cost

Attendee Giveaway – Sponsored by PNMsoft
One lucky attendee will win a full day's training on Business Process Management, Concept and Best Practices. Winner will be announced during the Q&A session.

Date: June 05, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm US Eastern
Duration: 60 minutes

Featured Speakers:

Colin Masson, Worldwide Industry Solution Director for Supply Chain & ERP, Microsoft
Tim Yocum, Senior Consultant, Neudesic
James Luxford, BPM Specialist, PNMsoft

Geographic Eligibility: USA

Publisher: PNMSOFT and NEUDESIC, Sponsored by Microsoft

Former Microsoft Employee offers fix for XP SP3 Reboot Issue

May 15, 2008 by Rick Savoia

(TheForceField.Net) May 15, 2008 — A former security employee for Microsoft issued a fix for computers plagued by the constant reboot issue caused by Windows XP Service Pack 3 yesterday. In a series of posts in his blog, Jesper Johanssen, Microsoft Security MVP and former Microsoft employee, discussed the reboot problem and released a script written in Visual Basic to resolve it.

The issue is caused when Windows XP Service Pack 3 is installed on a PC with an AMD processor. It affects certain OEM computers in particular, most notably HP. The problem was first reported the day after the re-release of SP3 to the mainstream and was the cause of much angst among Windows users in a Microsoft TechNet forum, leading to speculation that once again, Microsoft had released another buggy service pack.

In reality, it may actually be the OEM at fault. The problem appears to manifest itself after Service Pack 3 is installed on a computer with an AMD processor and pre-installed with an XP image that was originally created on an Intel based PC. The image installs intelppm.sys, a driver for power management in Intel PCs and amdk8.sys, a power management driver for AMD based computers. Running intelppm.sys on an AMD processor will cause it to reboot constantly. In reality it causes a STOP error 0x0000007e, however if the computer is configured to automatically restart it will endlessly reboot too fast to display the blue screen. If you set the computer to "disable the automatic restart on system failure" and you see that error code, you have the issue.

You can download the fix from his web site at Jesper's Blog .

Windows XP SP3 causes reboots on AMD PCs

May 9, 2008 by Rick Savoia

(TheForceField.Net ) May 9, 2008 — Windows XP Service Pack 3 causes an endless cycle of reboots when installed on certain computers with AMD processors, according to users in a Microsoft TechNet forum who experienced the issue after installing Service Pack 3.

The new service pack, which was pulled two weeks ago for a compatibility issue with another Microsoft product was re-released to the public Tuesday. According to users who posted in the forum, the issue is most prevalent with AMD systems. Several reported the issue with an Asus ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. At least one user experienced the issue with an Asus board and an Intel processor.

Users said they were unable to fully boot the PC, even in Safe Mode. One user known as Fragem said "I downloaded SP3 from the update website last night and went to restart, and got to "How do you want to start Windows", tried all options, and they all reboot my computer".

Several posters said they were able to get into their computer after connecting a USB flash drive. There was one caveat. "You have to keep the memory stick everytime that you boot the computer", said someone called esadof. "If you take it off, it comes back to the endless loop."

Users were understandably upset, given the recent recall of Windows XP Service Pack 3 a few days after its initial release to the public. "WAY TO GO MICROSOFT! You know, most people in the business world would be FIRED for this kind of lousy programming!!!", user known as Olykev wrote. "I'm not sure I have enough faith in you people to try reinstalling sp3 again and will NEVER go to your POS vista", Olykev added. "Dirty money grubbing Microsoft. Build an OS that works for pete sake!"

A Microsoft employee allegedly asked users on the forum to submit more information but did not comment further.

{mos_fb_discuss:no_discuss}

OpenOffice.org Releases version 3.0 beta

May 7, 2008 by Rick Savoia

(TheForceField.net ) May 7, 2008 — The OpenOffice.org Community announced the release of OpenOffice.org 3 beta to the public this morning. OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the latest release of the open source office suite originally developed by Sun Microsystems and is considered by many to be one of few serious competitors of Microsoft Office.

In an e-mail announcement distributed to members of the OpenOffice.org community Marketing Group, John McCreesh, OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead, told members of the marketing group that the beta was released publicly to provide a broader base for testing the new version but was not intended for use in a production environment.

OpenOffice.org Logo

According to McCreesh, New features to the office suite include an ability to display multiple pages in the word processor called Writer, a solver component and an increase to 1024 columns in the Calc spreadsheet, chart enhancements and an improvement to the crop feature used in Draw and the Microsoft Powerpoint-like presentation program known as Impress.

The new version will support ODF 1.2 and will work with Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and Microsoft Office binary file formats.

In the e-mail, McCreesh told members of the Marketing Group that the new version would also be more compatible with OS X. "OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11, with the look and feel of any other Aqua application. It introduces partial VBA support to this platform", McCreesh wrote. "In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications", he added.

According to McCreesh, OpenOffice.org 3.0 is due for release in September.

The Office suite is released under the GNU/GPL and is freely available. OpenOffice.org v3.0 beta is currently available for download in English for Windows, Linux, OS X and OpenSolaris at http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta .

{mos_fb_discuss:no_discuss}

FF Forum May Post Party Winners

May 4, 2008 by Rick

(TheForceField.net ) May 4, 2008 — The Force Field hosted a post party in The Force Field Forums Saturday night.

Beginning 7 PM EDT The Force Field Forums hosted a Forum Post Party for all members of The Force Field.Net. All members were eligible including Admins and mods except Rick. The Post Party began at 7 PM EDT and ended at 1 AM EDT.

Prizes were awarded for the most posts and the best content. All participants had their Karma raised.

The winners of The Force Field Forums Post Party:

Highest Post Count: Thughes with the most posts wins an nVidia T-shirt.

Creator of The Longest Coherent Thread: Stevef68 wins a $5 Starbucks Gift Card.

Best Post: Genoagirl wins a 1GB USB Flash Drive.

Random prizes were also distributed during the evening. There were some great posts and some interesting discussions. Everyone who attended the FF Forum Post Party had their karma raised.

Winners will be notified by e-mail Sunday afternoon with instructions to claim their prizes.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

CompTIA Certifications Earn ANSI Accreditation

April 30, 2008 by Rick

Internationally recognized measurement of quality for CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ certifications

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 30, 2008 — The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), the leading provider of vendor-neutral certifications for the world’s technology workforce, announced today that three of its professional certifications – CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ – have achieved accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

CompTIA Logo

Accreditation of the three certifications is the culmination of a multi-month process to verify compliance with requirements outlined in internationally accepted standards for assessing personnel certification programs (ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024); and for the operation of accreditation bodies (ISO/IEC 17011).

“The ANSI accreditation process provides certification bodies with an internationally recognized measurement of quality and benchmarks by which to evaluate and improve their practices,” said Dr. Roy Swift, ANSI director of personnel certification accreditation. “Accreditation by an independent body that conducts an impartial review under the auspices of ISO/IEC 17011 and ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 creates an extremely valuable distinction for a personnel certification program. This value extends through the service network – from certification body, to certificate holder, to employer, to the public they serve.”

ANSI is a global leader in the accreditation of personnel certification programs and is the only U.S. accreditor that requires a week-long assessor training as well as a mandatory annual training update to meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011.

“We are extremely pleased that our certification programs have achieved this important accreditation,” said John Venator, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. “This highly-desired status further affirms that CompTIA certifications are the recognized industry benchmark for a broad range of foundation-level IT skills.”

CompTIA A+ certification validates skills needed by computer support professionals, including installation, configuration, diagnosing, preventive maintenance, basic networking, security, safety, environmental issues, and communication and professionalism.

CompTIA Network+ validates an IT professional’s ability to install, configure and troubleshoot basic networking hardware, protocols and services.

CompTIA Security+ validates knowledge of communication security, infrastructure security, cryptography, operational security, and general security concepts.

About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the voice of the world’s $3 trillion information technology industry. CompTIA membership extends into more than 100 countries and includes companies at the forefront of innovation; the channel partners and solution providers they rely on to bring their products to market; and the professionals responsible for maximizing the benefits organizations receive from their technology investments. For more information, please visit www.comptia.org.

Contact:
Steven Ostrowski
Director, Corporate Communications
CompTIA
Phone: 630-678-8468
Email: sostrowski @ comptia.org

Windows XP SP3 to be released next week, according to Neowin

April 16, 2008 by Rick

(TheForceField.net ) April 16, 2008 — Technology news site Neowin.net posted a list of release dates for Windows XP Service Pack 3 yesterday. According to the schedule, SP3 is scheduled for release April 21, 2008.

The announcement, posted by Christopher Vendemio on April 15, claims the information was obtained internally from Microsoft. According to the schedule, Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be available to OEM's, Volume License, Connect, MSDN and TechNet Subscribers next week. SP3 will be released through Microsoft Update, Windows Update and Download Center April 29.

Other sources pegged the middle to end of April as possible release dates of SP3. Microsoft declined to formally announce a specific date, saying only that the long awaited service pack for the seven year old operating system would be released sometime in the first half of 2008.

Microsoft said SP3 would be the final service pack and major update of Windows XP. The popular OS is scheduled for End of Life Support June 30, 2010 or soon after the release of Windows 7, which according to Microsoft is scheduled for release sometime between 2009 and 2010.

{mos_fb_discuss:no_discuss}

IEEE Computer Society to Launch Professional Certification for Entry-Level Software Developers

April 15, 2008 by Rick

Certified Software Development Associate Certification Will Validate Job Seekers' Expertise; Aid Employers in Identifying Competent Applicants and Focusing Employee Training

Los Alamitos, Calif. (PRWEB) April 15, 2008 — The IEEE Computer Society, the world's leading organization of computing professionals, today launched a new professional certification for entry-level software developers to complement its existing certification for mid-career software professionals.
Formal announcement of the Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) program will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Las Vegas on Tuesday, 13 May at 5 p.m. in conjunction with the IEEE Computer Society's annual meeting. The first CSDA exam will be held the same day, featuring students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It will be administered at the Rio by testing partner Prometric.

The Computer Society developed the certification in response to industry's requests for a way to evaluate the skill and knowledge of those entering the software field. The CSDA exam covers core software-engineering principles and validates an entry-level candidate's knowledge of the foundations of computer science, mathematics, and engineering. It is designed to complement the Computer Society's Certified Software Development Professional program.

"Software engineers should take the CSDA because it offers them the opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency in, and commitment to, software-engineering principles," said Susan K. (Kathy) Land, CSDP and president-elect of the IEEE Computer Society. "Individuals should strive to separate themselves and to show that they possess this fundamental understanding. This can be accomplished by taking the CSDA and then ultimately the CSDP."

Steve Tockey, chair of the CSDA Certification Committee and a principal consultant with Construx Software, said the CSDA has distinct benefits for both job seekers and potential employers. "For the job seeker, it independently verifies their capability to perform as a professional, enhances their credibility, and opens doors to professional growth opportunities," he said. "The CSDA gives employers independent assurance that an employee can perform on real-world projects."

Land, principal software and systems engineer at MITRE Corp., said there's a difference between individuals who can code and individuals who understand the engineering discipline as it's applied to the software lifecycle. She added that employers are searching for well-rounded information technology experts. Unlike vendor- or application-specific certifications, a broad range of topics are covered by the CSDA, which is based on the IEEE's Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. The CSDA certification was developed through rigorous adherence to internationally accepted procedures. It features a self-directed learning system that consists of print modules, an online course, and instructor materials. Prometric will administer the exam through its thousands of testing centers around the world. Individuals interested in the CSDA can visit http://www.computer.org/csda and sign up to take the exam at their convenience. Proctors can be also arranged for companies interested in having groups of their employees take the exam.

About the IEEE Computer Society
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world's leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the CS is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.

The CS serves the information and career-development needs of today's computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses. Its Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program for mid-career professionals and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential for recent college graduates confirm the skill and knowledge of those working in the field. The CS Digital Library (CSDL) provides an excellent research tool, containing more than 145,000 articles from 1,500 conference proceedings and 29 CS periodicals going back to 1988.

About Prometric
Prometric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ETS, is the recognized global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services. Its comprehensive suite of services, including test development, test delivery and data management capabilities, allows clients to develop and launch global testing programs as well as accurately measure program results and data. Prometric reliably delivers and administers tests on behalf of 450 clients in the academic, professional, healthcare, government, corporate and information technology markets. It delivers tests flexibly via the Web or by utilizing a robust test center network in 135 countries.