Tag Archives: XP

Computers

Should you keep using Windows XP?

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Mae Watson’s aging computer still works fine. She asked if she should give up XP before next spring.

Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014. That’s less than nine months away.

The end of support means the end of updates–even security updates. When an exploit is found after that date, too bad; it will not get patched. Gradually, Windows XP will become less and less secure.

 [Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Video Gaming

Battlefield 4 Deluxe Edition Revealed for UK

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A Deluxe Edition for Battlefield 4, exclusive to retailer GAME, has been revealed. In addition to Battlefield 4, the Deluxe Edition comes with the China Rising expansion pack, a SteelBook cover, and three Gold Battlepacks, and will run you £64.99.

“Battlepacks contain a combination of new weapon accessories, dog tags, knives, XP boosts, and character customisation items,” GAME describes. “The packs are designed to add an all-new layer of multiplayer persistence with an exciting element of chance, and are awarded during gameplay.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Video Gaming

Xbox Live Gold Free This Weekend

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Microsoft is offering Xbox Live Gold for free this weekend in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Japan. According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, beginning today and running until Monday, April 22nd at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific), all Xbox owners will be upgraded to Gold regardless of their current status.

During the weekend, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 will all offer double XP, and players will also be able to enter a tournament with FIFA 13, NBA 2K13, Madden 13 and NHL 13.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

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From: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/19/xbox-live-gold-free-this-weekend

Do it yourself

Unable to Access any of DoItYourself sites

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By PineCone

Hi:
Desktop, XP/I.E. 8 with SP3

I am NOT able to access any of DoItYourself sites along with this site, Computers and Peripherals and all other DoItYourself web-sites while my Laptop with exact same I.E. 8/XP with SP3 easily opening up upon clicking any of DoItYourself sites.:confused:

Any clue on this would be truly appreciated.

Thanks,

From: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/computers-peripherals/493118-unable-access-any-doityourself-sites.html

Video Gaming

Grid 2: Tearing up the Multiplayer Tarmac

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The souped-up motors of Grid 2 are about to take their starting positions. The long-awaited title is finally set for release this May, almost a half-decade to the day since its much-lauded predecessor was rolled out. The maxim for this sequel is one of “total race day immersion”, an ambitious effort to recreate the tension, glamour, and sparking rivalry of any authentic competitive driving event. From our hands-on with the game’s re-imagined multiplayer modes, that sense of competition has filtered right through to the development team – Grid 2’s multiplayer is set to stand alone from that pesky career.

“We’ve decided to make it a completely distinct experience from the single player, because of the fiction we’ve created in the career – we didn’t want that impinging on the multiplayer at all,” says Senior Game Designer Ross Gowing, with a grin. Essentially, this separation means there are two dedicated games under Grid 2’s hood, with victories in solo and multiplayer modes resulting in rewards unique to each. “Online has its own progression system of XP and cash, and all the vehicles that you might have acquired throughout the career, you have will have to earn to use in multiplayer,” Gowing explains.

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From: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/grid-2-tearing-up-the-multiplayer-tarmac

Computers

Microsoft warns the end is near for Windows XP

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In just one year, on April 8, 2014, Microsoft will stop delivering security updates for Windows XP, the second most popular operating system in the world. Microsoft issued several blog posts Monday urging businesses to get out before it was too late.

“You should take action to move off of Windows XP,” Microsoft said Monday. “After April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates.” Most XP support for regular consumers ended in 2009, although security updates continue to roll in. But not for long.

If you continue to run Windows XP on your PC, Microsoft says you’re on your own in just under a year. You can probably keep XP going with a good anti-virus package, but that will only protect you from known threats.

Should the worst happen and hackers uncover a particularly nasty zero day flaw that lets the bad guys take over your PC, don’t look to Microsoft for help because the company is moving on. And like it or not, you probably should too.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Market Minute: J.C. Penney Set to Jump on Ouster of CEO Ron Johnson

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By DailyFinance Staff

Filed under:

Thomas Iannaccone/Pool via Bloomberg

J.C. Penney does an about-face, and Microsoft sets a deadline for millions of Windows users.

The Dow Industrials rose 48 points yesterday, the S&P 500 added 9 and the Nasdaq gained 18. The market has been on a see-saw ride recently. The S&P has not had back-to-back gains or losses for the past 13 sessions, the longest such streak on record.

J.C. Penney’s (JCP) controversial CEO Ron Johnson has been ousted after less than two years on the job. The company’s revenue fell sharply last year after he eliminated sale prices and coupons, only to backtrack later on. Myron Ullman, the former CEO, will return as Johnson’s replacement. Investors are concerned the flip-flop could lead to another expensive makeover. JC Penney shares lost half their value during Johnson’s tenure.

If you own a computer running on Windows XP system, Microsoft will in effect dis-own you a year from now. The company says it will stop supporting XP, meaning it will not provide security patches and system updates.

Alcoa kicked off the earnings season last night with a better than expected increase in quarterly profit. But revenue for the industrial bellwether was a bit shy of estimates. The company also said China‘s production cutbacks are reducing the worldwide over-supply of aluminum.

Google has been giving away its Android system to mobile phone makers, in exchange for prominent placement of the company’s apps for Google Maps, YouTube and others. Now a group of rivals – including Microsoft, Oracle and Nokia – are asking European regulators to charge Google with antitrust violations.

Ford says its Focus brand was the top-selling passenger car in the world last year. It sold more than 1-million of the cars in 2012 – a quarter of them in China.

And Citigroup may file suit against the Nasdaq. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bank wants to recoup losses suffered in the botched launch of Facebook stock last May.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Microsoft prepares to patch Windows 8 on Tuesday

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Windows 8 and Windows RT are subject to critical vulnerabilities that will be addressed on Microsoft‘s Patch Tuesday next week, both by virtue of supporting Internet Explorer 10.

The bulletin for the vulnerabilities addresses similar problems in all versions of Internet Explorer from IE6 through IE10. That means affected operating systems include XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

[ NAVIGATE: 12 essential Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

HELP: Windows 8: How to solve the Start Button dilemma ]

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

How to discover space hogs on your hard drive

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If you have a hard drive that is quickly approaching capacity, sorting through the files and folders for the ones taking up the most space can be a really time-consuming process. There’s an easier way to do it—it’s the subject of our latest Tech Tip.

For help identifying space hogs, let’s turn to TreeSize Free, which is available for Windows 8, as well as Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Launch the program, go to scan, and select the drive you want to take a look at. The application shows you, in gigabytes, megabytes, and kilobytes, how big each folder is, ranked from most to least.

One of the nice things you can do with TreeSize Free is drill down into subfolders to see what sort of space is being taken up. If I want to right click on a folder and see what the files are like or delete them, I can go ahead and do that.

Note that TreeSize Free does not dynamically update, so after you delete the data you’ll have to run the scan again to get an accurate count of files and data being stored.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Windows XP decline stalls as users hold onto aged OS despite 2014 deadline

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The decline in usage share of Windows XP, which is slated for retirement in 53 weeks, has slowed significantly, hinting that millions of its users will hold onto the operating system much longer than some, including Microsoft, expect.

Data published monthly by California-based Web analytics company Net Applications indicates that XP‘s long-running slide has virtually stalled since Jan. 1.

In the past three months, Windows XP‘s monthly drop in share has averaged just 0.12 of a percentage point. That’s less than a fifth as much as the 12-month average of 0.68 percentage points.

Other averages point to a major deceleration in declining usage share: XP‘s most recent six-month average decrease of 0.42 percentage points was less than half the 0.94 point average for the prior six months.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Windows 8 slowly gains market share traction, analysis shows

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Tom Bergeron

Barely five months after its release, Windows 8 has captured 3.17 percent of the desktop operating systems market share, though it’s still lagging behind Vista, according to the March stats from Net Applications.

Windows 8 shipped in October 2012, and its market share has grown slowly but steadily. In November, Net Analytics tracked a 1.09 percent share for Windows 8, which went up to 1.72 percent in December. It hit 2.26 percent in January, then 2.67 in February, and took another jump to reach 3.17 percent in March.

Windows captures more than 91 percent of the desktop OS market (Macs collectively have 6.94 percent and Linux systems, 1.17 percent), but Windows 7 is used on 44.73 percent of systems and XP has 38.73 percent of the market. At 3.17 percent of the market, Windows 8 is the fourth most popular OS, still behind Vista (which retains 4.99 percent) but ahead of Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion (2.65 percent).

The Net Applications stats are obtained by tracking 40,000 web sites and data captured from 160 million unique visitors across the web. Another company that tracks market share is StatCounter, which calculates its figures based on 15 billion page views from web sites it tracks. StatCounter’s figures are not very different from those of Net Applications, showing Windows 8 at 3.9 percent for March, a slight increase from 3.16 percent in February.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Cree Introduces XLamp XQ LEDs Delivering Breakthrough Size and Light Distribution

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Cree Introduces XLamp XQ LEDs Delivering Breakthrough Size and Light Distribution

DURHAM, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Cree, Inc. (NAS: CREE) announces the availability of a new product family, the XLamp® XQ LEDs, featuring a unique combination of small size, novel light distribution and high reliability design. This combination of features enables the next generation of designs for applications that require broader light distribution such as omni-directional lamps and fixtures.

The XQ LEDs are Cree’s smallest lighting-class LEDs at just 1.6mm x 1.6mm, 57 percent smaller than Cree’s XLamp XB package. Built on Cree’s revolutionary SC3 Technology™ Platform, the ceramic-based XQ LEDs are designed to deliver the long-term calculated lifetimes of Cree’s other high-power LEDs, such as the high performing XP or XT LEDs. The XQ LED‘s new light emitting pattern directs more light towards the edge rather than the center of the package. Compared to existing LEDs, XQ LEDs allow fewer packages to achieve a wide, distributed light pattern. Together, these innovations can enable manufacturers to increase the light output, expected lifetime and omni-directionality of their designs.

“The high reliability of the ceramic based XQ-B LED allows us to offer a high quality solution that does not compromise on lifetime,” says Martin Hockemeyer, Vice Chairman of the Board of TELEFUNKEN Licht AG. “The unique optical advantage of the XQ-B gives us the opportunity to create the brilliant look that our customers are looking for.”

“Once again, Cree is creating innovative solutions to allow our customers to differentiate their products,” said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. “Unlike other mid-power packages, the XQ LEDs allow lighting manufacturers to meet their light distribution requirements using fewer LEDs without giving up the performance or reliability that they expect from Cree’s lighting-class LEDs.”

The XQ family includes two new LEDs, the XQ-B and the XQ-D. In cool white (5000K), the XQ-B LED delivers up 160 lumens-per-watt at 0.18 W and the XQ-D LED delivers up to 130 lumens-per-watt at 1 W. Both LEDs are available in 2700K to 6500K color temperatures with minimum 80 CRI option.

Cree® XLamp XQ LED samples are available now and production quantities are available with standard lead times. Visit www.cree.com/xq to learn more about Cree’s latest innovation.

About Cree

Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through the use of energy-efficient, mercury-free LED …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

HTPC Showdown: Which front-end interface is best?

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Building the perfect home theater PC is easy enough—if you have the right guide. Setting up the perfect software front end is equally straightforward, but picking that software isn’t so easy. You’ll need first to consider the specific hardware inside your HTPC, and what you’ll be asking your machine to do once it’s sitting inside your living room.

A wide variety of HTPC media player applications is available, and this variety is both a blessing and a curse. After all, plain old Windows can run your machine, assuming that you are willing to deal with the inconvenience of controlling your entertainment center with a mouse and keyboard. But if you’d rather have a single application with a TV-friendly interface and the power to organize all of your photos, music, and movies for easy viewing, then dedicated HTPC front-end software is a much better option.

With that in mind, I rounded up a few of my favorite front-end utilities. Some are meant to run within Windows. Others have a low-impact operating system of their own. But all of them excel in specific situations. By the end of this article, you’ll know which one is right for you.

Windows Media Center

We can’t discuss media software without considering Windows Media Center—it’s been a staple of home theater PCs for more than a decade. Windows Media Center was initially released in 2001 and came bundled with most editions of Windows from XP all the way through Windows 7. But everything changed with Windows 8 when Microsoft chose to unbundle our beloved Windows Media Center from most versions of the operating system, and instead distribute it as an optional download.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Linux

Change tab size to 4

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By jerryd

forum members,

gvim version 6.0.150.0

Vi has been my favorite editor for over 30 years. Mostly with
Unix but now with windows XP. It works fine but I want to
change the tab to 4 spaces instead of 8. I read on the internet
that I can edit the .vimrc file but I only have an _vimrc file
and windows has a problem with files that start with a “.”.

I do have a vimrc_example.vim and gvimrc_example.vim files.

Any suggestions?

jerryd

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

Simple directory tree diff script

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By LMHmedchem

I have had some issues with a data drive and have copied all of the data to a new drive. The size used is not the same on both drives with a 3GB difference (less on the new drive). There are millions of files on the data drive, so it is not an easy task to determine if there are some files missing on the the new copy. Is there a simple script I can run that will identify any files that are present on the original drive but are missing on the new drive?

I create the copy with cp -Rfp &> logfile, and the logfile did not indicate that there were any files that could not be copied.

I could run rsync in one direction, but there are some issues with the time stamps on the original drive, so I’m not sure how that would work. I’m not looking to correct any discrepancies, just to identify it they exist. I have found some dir diff scripts, but they all seem over complicated for what I need.

This is ntfs under windows XP and I am running bash under cygwin.

Thanks for the advice.

LMHmedchem

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Computers

Five essential Pokki apps bring the best of mobile and the Web to your desktop

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Light, fast, and shiny, many Web apps have the futuristic feel of a bullet train. They also have numerous advantages over desktop apps: There’s nothing to install, they don’t take up any hard drive space or RAM, they’re quick and easy to access, and you don’t ever have to worry about using an outdated version. But Web apps ride on the rickety rails of a browser, and that means that every Web app you run has all your browser’s problems with incompatibility, instability, and resource-hogging.

Best known for its slick way of slipping the Start Menu into Windows 8, innovative app platform Pokki (pronounced “poke-key”) brings Web and mobile apps—including some which are exact replicas of websites—right to the desktop of any Windows PC running XP on up. There are hundreds of Pokki apps to choose from, but you have to get started somewhere. These five essential Pokki apps will fulfill all your basic Web needs without ever touching your browser.

Staying connected

The Web is all about communication. Gmail Lite is an incredibly lightweight Gmail client that takes email out of your browser and brings it, with a twist, to your desktop. The best part of having Gmail on your desktop is the real-time notifications; these come in pop-up banners as well as little tray badges, and ensure no email goes unnoticed. Gmail Lite sits in your Windows tray, and with one click, gives you access to all your emails, including labels, starred and sent emails. You can easily perform various Gmail actions such as assigning labels, starring and unstarring, archiving, and, of course, reading and writing emails.

Gmail Lite‘s clean interface simplifies the Gmail experience, perhaps too much at times.

Gmail Lite is almost perfect, but it is missing several crucial features: You cannot attach files; there is no in-email spellchecking; you cannot choose which email address to send from in case you own several, and (the most painful) the search feature doesn’t work. Nevertheless, Gmail Lite is an excellent client for most Gmail features, and its multiple-user support really seals the deal.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Microsoft's Windows 8 Uptake Growing Slowly

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By Chuck Jones, Contributor

Windows 7 and XP still dominate web traffic for the Windows platform with 44.6% and 39% share respectively in February per Net Applications.  It is not too surprising that Windows 8 hasn’t had higher usage (it was 2.67% in February) since businesses are going to need to test and train its employees and I don’t think consumers are rushing to buy a new PC or looking to upgrade to an operating system that they can’t fully take advantage of on older technology.  It seems like they would prefer to keep using their existing system and buy a tablet, mainly the iPad. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest