Torian Group Times “Technology with Integrity”

Only one critical patch will be in windows updates, to be released November 13.

www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-nov.mspx

 

Apple QuickTime versions prior to 7.3 are vulnerable to an attack which can give a user control of your pc. Update QuickTime to the current (7.3) version if you have it installed.

www.apple.com/quicktime/download

 

A number of lower cost Voice over IP Phone products are starting to appear on the market for small offices. Linksys (Cisco’s consumer line) has released the SPA9000 and SPA series phones. The PBX is about $300; phones are about $150 each. Microsoft has released the Response Point VOIP phone system this month, at about $3000. It integrates with Microsoft Exchange, including Small Business Server, with voicemail to your inbox. www.microsoft.com/responsepoint

For more on VOIP www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php

 

Windows Home Server is out, and is a good solution for high end home networks. It includes shared media storage, automated backup and remote access. Priced around $7-800 including hardware. www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver

www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9041381&pageNumber=1

 

Free online service to help eliminate paper junk mail www.proquo.com

 

Want to see what the FBI has on you? www.getmyfbifile.com

www.appscout.com/2007/11/big_brother_is_watching_you_ge.php

 

www.naymz.com  Another way to build a positive reputation on the web.

 

We still recommend windows mobile for smart cell phones, because of the better integration with Exchange Mail server. Here is a review of recent models. Not listed is the Palm Treo 700W, and the Samsung i760, which we like.   www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2213489,00.asp 

www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,1911101,00.asp  Treo 700w

www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2206128,00.asp Samsung i760

 

View and manage all kinds of image files - free.  www.irfanview.com 

 

Foxit .pdf reader is a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader, and includes limited editing features. www.foxitsoftware.com $40

PDF Creator allows you to create .pdf files from most applications. Free alternative to Acrobat Standard. Installs as a printer driver. http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator

 

Windows Directory statistics shows you where your drive space is going. Good for locating and cleaning up unneeded files. http://windirstat.info

 

An update for the time change was released last month with windows updates. If your time was an hour off between Oct 28 and Nov 3rd, the update was probably not applied. Let us know if you need help.  Some Cell phones should have been updated as well.

 

Visual Studio 2008 will be released in November. Visual Studio is for programmers.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio

Windows Server 2008 and SQL server 2008 are scheduled to be released Feb 27 2008.

A new version of Small Business Server is due out later next year, which will be built on server 2008 and Exchange 2007.

 

Windows desktop search was included in last month’s automatic updates for WSUS users. This can use up a lot of processing power indexing all your desktop files in the background, and is not a security update. If you use WSUS (windows server update service, a server based way to do automatic updates) you may want to read this: http://blogs.technet.com/wsus/archive/2007/10/25/wds-update-revision-follow-up.aspx

 

Windows Live has come out with new features, including updated Hotmail, IM, Blogging, and Photo Sharing:  http://get.live.com

 

MS Site for photographers, including some useful tools for managing photos www.microsoft.com/prophoto

Digital Video newsletter www.mydvmag.com

 

Tim Torian

Torian, Group, Inc.

http://www.toriangroup.com