Cingular To Purchase AT&T Wireless

In the first of what will probably be several consolidations in the wireless market, Cingular has won a bidding war to purchase AT&T wireless. Their bid of $41 billion knocked the last remaining competitor, Vodafone out of the running. Now Cingular must get stockholder and government approval to close the deal. If it does go through, the combined company will be the largest cell phone carrier in the country moving ahead of the current leader Verizon. By the way, Vodafone just happens to own a 45% share of Verizon.

AT&T Wireless split from AT&T in July 2001 as an independent company and employees 30,000 employees. It has somewhere around 25 million subscribers.

As you know, I am not a large fan of these mega mergers. Generally people lose jobs and customer service goes further down the tubes. But sometimes you get some real cool television ads. The wireless industry in this country needs some fire under its feet. We are not moving fast to implement new technologies in this area. If this deal can help get the fire started, it might be worth it. Check back in around 2006 or 2007 and let's see what really happens. I wonder how many shares of AT&T Wireless stock its executives and board members own anyway? At a $15.00 per share bid they are all probably sitting pretty well! (The market price on Monday was around $12)

Microsoft Critical Patch Update

Some users are finding that when they go to the Windows Update Service site they need to install dozens of critical updates. Welcome to tech support! If you do not know how to install updates I suggest you be very careful. In the short term, while we suggest all updates are eventually installed, you may want to consider only installing the two latest critical updates which are KB828028 and KB832894. If you are not sure what you are doing with this...don't. Call us or someone that does. You may cause problems that you don't want. We do not suggest any end users install any patches on any servers at any time, you system administrators are of course excluded (as long as you are real system administrator).

Please seek help from someone qualified if you are not sure that you know what you are doing!

Microsoft Issues Critical Patch

A critical flaw in basic Windows infrastructure was discovered about 6 months ago. This flaw can allow hackers to steal files, delete data, or eavesdrop on computers. Microsoft has created a patch that eliminates the flaw and thus protects the computer from the possible intrusion due to the flaw. This flaw is considered one of the most serious discovered to date. Microsoft has rated the patch as Critical, its highest level of importance.

Now the fun begins as hackers try to find the flaw and exploit it before machines have the patch installed. All Windows computers are affected including servers and workstations. Even the Department of Homeland Security is warning computers users to install this patch.

The patch can be found on the Windows Update Service. Clients can call us for more information or to schedule us to install the patch. We have created a CD with the patch for users that do not have a high speed Internet connection.

Details of this issue can be found by clicking here.

HP Introduces New CD/DVD Labeling Technology

HP has invented a new technology called LightScribe that allows a CD or DVD drive to create a label directly on the CD media. The technology uses the same laser that produces the data on the CD or DVD to create a silk screen like, high contrast label on the upper side of the CD or DVD. Once the data portion of the media is written the user flips the disk over and the label is created on the opposite side.

These new drives should be available within the next 6 months or so and will cost about $10.00 more than an existing drive. The process will require a new type of CD/DVD media which is expected to cost about $ .10 per disk more than current media.