Before upgrading or installing service pack or patch in any of your Microsoft software or even on other software , it is a good idea to do research on the net and check Microsoft support page if there is any side effect as the result of the installation. This is happen to Vista user when the installation of Vista Service Pack a (SP1) resulting some software malfunction.

Thought the list is not that long, but I notice that there are 2 widely used software listed in the list, which are Zone Alarm Security Suite and Trend Micro Internet Security. Although the installing  update will fix the problem, but on unrelated case, there are some users who encounter the problem where SP1 was killing their system .

As some said, the culprit is KB937287 which had caused certain system get rebooted repeatedly or hung forever during the installation process. I own 1 Vista machine, luckily I never encounter any problem during the installation process including this KB

How to check if your system has received any patches from Microsoft?

1. From your My Computer shortcut on your computer desktop, right click your mouse and click Manage

2. Computer Management screen will appear on your screen. From the left navigation menu, expand System Tool -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> System.

3. You’ll see long list of event logs appear on the middle of the screen. Usually, for patch related installation, the source name would be WindowsUpdateClient or Windows Update Agent in Win XP

In Vista, to find if certain patches (named with prefix KB) has been installed, click Find at the right menu bar. Key in the kb# (or ‘kb’ only if you don’t know the exact number’ and search. You can find if the patches was installed or not, or even if it is successful

The ultimate goal of patch or service pack is to eliminate defect or vulnerable that could be exploit by unlawful users, but sometime it does break your computer. So backup your important files regularly.

Managing bunches of servers and systems is not an easy task especially when each them has weird name and different credential.  If you have multiple systems (server, desktop or notebook) in your local network LAN or even WAN, Visionapp Remote Desktop comes in handy to get you remotely connected with just 1 click (or 2 clicks). It’s never been easier than before.

But before that, of course you need to get it setup.

Download your VisionApp Remote Desktop here

Create credentials (allow multiple)
Let’s say you have multiple systems with multiple credentials. For each credential, create 1 profile complete with user name, password and domain.

Multiple folders to keep system with different profiles
For each credential that you have created above, create 1 folder. Set the folder to inherit that credential. Add systems to the folders according to their credentials.

*Automatically connected and login in 1 click
The best part is, once you have completed item 1 and 2, remotely connecting to the system has never been so easy than before. In just 1 click you have logged on to the system.

Other notes on VisioanApp Remote Dekstop

• Free of charge
• Only 1 instance of VisionApp available (opened) at one time
• *Click once is only applicable to the system with WinXP, Window 2003 server only. Win 2000 will prompting you to key in your login id each time you’re trying to establish connection even if you have set it earlier to connect automatically

Screenshot below shows how VisionApp Remote Desktop looks like.

Certain companies restrict any free web based emails from being opened in the office. So does the popular social networking websites such as Facebook. Except emails, all restricted websites can be opened using proxy websites. Why can’t email? Good question, but I can’t answer that question.

There are a few tricks such as auto-forwarding all emails to your company email address, but I found that it is not efficient and will flood the mailbox. A friend of mine found this trick by accident. Keep in mind, this works ONLY for Gmail.

Prerequisite

You’re using notebook with XP or Vista installed, and it can be hibernated. I don’t have Linux or Mac based system, so I’ve no idea on their outcome.

How does it work?

1. You must have Firefox/Internet Explorer installed in your machine.
2. Install Google Toolbar. Sign in to your Google account using the Setting button available at the top right screen.
3. Open Gmail in your web browser.
4. Hibernate your notebook (to be brought to your office).
5. Start you notebook, and bingo, you should be able to compose and read your Gmail without any problem.

Reminder

• Do not close your bowser, otherwise you won’t be able to open your Gmail again, even if you have copied the URL to somewhere else.
• Why do you need Google Toolbar? So that you are still signed in to your Google Account, and that you don’t have to sign in to your account again.
• This trick works only for Gmail. It doesn’t work for Yahoo Mail and it is never tested with Hotmail.
• It was tested on 1 restricted environment only. The results might vary on other restricted environment.
• Works on XP and Vista (not tested on other operating system).

Every blogger should know what is mybloglog and blogcatalog by now. Basically it is an application that logs our visit to blog or website that have joined either this service. This is not a comparison between this 2 services, but more of my experience using their service. Having use blogcatalog later than mybloglog, I feel both of them have similarity in terms of services offered. As we know, mybloglog has been acquired by Yahoo, and this makes their service and engine works better especially in combating all kind of spam.

I join and installed BlogCatalog widget few weeks back, but I have removed it last week, but I will keep my membership. The reason behind it is because I feel like I was kind of spammed by email informing this bla bla has join my community and add me as friend. Initially I add all of them since I’m new in this community and need to socialize more with them. Until one day when I check the profile one of my ‘to be friend’, it is not even approved yet.

I’m not sure if you can start adding friends before getting approved, but I feel this is not the way it should be. Furthermore the profile seems like not updated with no avatar uploaded. In real world, to be friend we must know each other, at least we meet them few times or if you friendly enough, you can be friend in 1 meet only

The same thing applies in internet. You must introduce your self before become a friend (in this case, using avatar) or at least visiting their blog or website few times before.

It turns out, out of 8 my so called friend, 5 of them doesn’t have an avatar. 4 of them called ybyl, xulu, xxin, yano doesn’t have blog/website and they appear online 1 – 2 months ago. Are they human or just script or bot?

While for MyBlogLog service, I’m pretty satisfied with them, especially their auto added community features that automatically add us to the community of blog we’re frequently visited

Update 16/06/2007: Look likes BlogCatalog guy has visit this blog, this is fast indeed. I have nothing against BlogCatalog, except I’m voicing my concern about it.