Friday, March 9, 2007

ACSS Newsletter

Windows Updates
This Tuesday, March 13, like every second Tuesday of the month is when Microsoft releases updates for its products. However, despite the existence of a well-know Word exploit, Microsoft says it has no patches to release this Tuesday. Of course, things could change, so my advice is to check for any updates for your operating system, as well as any other products that you have (e.g. Office).

Apple Updates
A number of updates were recently released for OS X. Be sure you have run the update utility.

iTunes
For those using iTunes, a new update was recently released. Apple users will find that iTunes is updated through the Apple Update Utility. For Windows users, you can go to the menu item to check for updates.

Daylight Savings Time
Hopefully this will be the last entry about daylight savings time.
Microsoft has put together a site showing for which products an update is available.
Go to: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist

Monday, March 5, 2007

ACSS Updates - DST another Y2K?

Lately, I've been inundated by articles about DST and it's implications. For those of you who have been spared this madness, DST refers to the new date on which Daylight Savings Times is to start this year in the US - this weekend! And I think liking it to Y2K is rather apropos. As we all recall there were all sorts of stories warning about the dangers to be posed by the change in the year. But, in fact, nothing really happened. Either everyone was so prepared, or there just wasn't really that much of a threat, that Y2K came and like Windows ME, it has been totally forgotten. Which should encourage everyone....

This is not to say that there is nothing you should do about DST and your computers. Most of us, in fact, are probably used to manually switching our clocks forward and backwards for most of our lives. But these days most computers get their time updates from the Internet. Provided your computer's time zone is set correctly and your time server isn't located in Antartica, you're computer will probably make the change on it's own.

There are, however, updated packages to take care of the shift for your computer. Apple and Windows Users should probably go ahead and make sure that they have installed those updates. Linux users have nothing to worry about really. If you are worried or want an explanation, write me and I'll tell you why.

So, suffice to say, I hope no one on this list is sweating it out, thinking disaster will follow and their computers will fry. Worst case scenario, your computer will be an hour off. Double click on the clock in your toolbar and set the time appropriately.

(NB. All Hoosiers! I don't what the hell you guys will have to do, since you prefer to just switch time zones than having to change your clocks.)

Hacking Into the Past

In my youth, I would take apart various electronic games, un-soldering and re-soldering them, and taking pride in the fact that that the suc...