New Microsoft Support Policy Does Not Include NT 4.0

Windows NT 4.0 is not covered under the new extended support policy announced by Microsoft. Support for NT 4.0 will cease at the end of this year. Still running NT 4.0 on your servers? Time to move forward!

Microsoft Extending Product Support - Again

Yesterday Microsoft announced that it is extending mainstream support of its current and future products by at least an additional 2 years. This means that products will be supported for at least 10 years from the time they are released. The reason for the change is to insure that businesses have plenty of time to plan migrations to new products. Of course for some companies even 10 years might not be enough!

The policy change means that a business or developer product (not personal or hardware) will be covered under mainstream support for 5 years from its release date or 2 years after the release of its replacement, whichever is longer.

This is good news at a time where security updates are critical to keeping business networks safe. Microsoft should be commended for listening and acting upon customer concerns.

SBC Union Workers On Strike

The CAW Union has started a 4 day strike against SBC which is expected to end on Tuesday. SBC has implemented a contigency plan with management and other temporary workers trying to fill the void. For most of us here in Connecticut this strike could affect our phone service and for many could affect their Internet access. At this point there does not appear to be any major service issues with either. If you do have a problem you can call the normal service numbers. Expect that delays may occur in new installations. If you are scheduled for a new installation you may want to call SBC to find out the status.

Did I mention I switched my home phone service to cable Monday? It's great!

Microsoft May Security Update Released (MS04-015)

Microsoft released the May Security Update on the 11th. The MS04-015 update consists of one Important fix. The fix is for Win XP and Win 2003 machines only. It has to do with the Windows internal help system. The user must take several steps in order for the issue to be triggered.

The Important designation is below the Critical designation. Critical issues should be resolved immediately as potential serious consequences exist. Important issues should be resolved in a timely manner as a less potential serious threat exists.

More information can be found here.

Teenager Admits To Being Sasser Author

The teenager arrested Friday has admitted to being the author of all 4 known variants of the Sasser virus that caused Internet havoc last week. He also admitted to creating several variants of the Netsky virus as well.

How did he get caught? Fancy technical work? No. Someone turned him in. Maybe the $250,000 reward Microsoft put up worked.

Sasser Worm Suspect Arrested

A high school student was arrested by German authorities Friday. The 18 year old man is suspected of creating the Sasser Worm which infected over a million computers and cost millions of dollars of damage, even including causing the delays and cancellations of airline flights in some areas. Information on the arrest is minimal as the story is just breaking. I'll post more information here as it becomes available.

Your Laptop Is Being Repaired ....By UPS!

I really like UPS. Maybe it's because they have been extremely reliable over the 21 years we have been using them. Maybe it's because every driver we have had delivering to us has always been a professional, maybe it's because they just do it right. I have been reading a bit about UPS over the last year and have been intrigued by their business direction. I learned that most of the cars in the auto industry are actually delivered by UPS and that they are managing whole warehouses for companies. They have created a whole division called Supply Chain Solutions that helps their Clients with handling the products that UPS used to just deliver.

Now they are repairing Toshiba laptop computers. They will pick up the broken laptop, send it to their Louisville repair center (staffed with technicians with an average of 7 years experience), fix it and return it to you normally within 1 business day. If they need parts they will get them fast via their own shipping network. Think this is strange? They already do this for cell phones, printers, scanners, projectors, PDAs, etc. You just didn't know it.

UPS is a very good company making some very interesting investments to enable them to provide expanded services to their Clients.