JETxp LLC

No Vista Service Pack this year

Well it looks like the Vista service pack will not come out until next year.

Early indications are that Vista SP1 will be released some time in 2008, based on information I've obtained from my sources. However, Microsoft could dedicate more resources to SP1 development in order to make the Vista search changes sooner because of a court oversight. That said, Vista search changes could just as easily slow down the SP1 development.

All the more reason to wait to upgrade.  I have been using Vista for several months now and I am still having a lot of problems, there are drivers that have yet to be released and half the time I try to print from MS Office 2007 the application crashes.

Microsoft realeases update to speed up Outlook 2007

This is (hopefully) good news for all of us Outlook 2007 users...

Microsoft Corp. late on Friday released an update to Outlook 2007 designed to speed up the communication software’s much-criticized sluggishness.

The 8.3 MB update should accelerate the download of messages from the Exchange e-mail server and reduce temporary freezes resulting from deleting messages or copying them from one folder to another, according to Jessica Arnold, Outlook’s program manager.

The update should also let Outlook 2007 users switch between messages faster and enable faster program startup, she said.

"I can’t say that this will 100 percent solve the latency issues, but users should see a big improvement," Arnold said.

If you download the update and also use Business Contact Manager there is an additional patch that Microsoft recommends that you download.

Microsoft has also updated the list of recommendations on how to correct performance issues.

Microsoft's OneCare continues to Disappoint

Looks like Microsoft is having some trouble getting their AntiVirus application up to speed.

A well-regarded antivirus testing laboratory has released its latest quarterly results, and placed Microsoft's OneCare antivirus solution squarely at the bottom of the list.
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In each of three categories – viruses, macros, worms and scripts; backdoors, trojans, and other malware; and a third category, combining the results of the first two – OneCare received the worst score out of seventeen products tested, according to AV-Comparatives.org, a group of IT graduate students who have published formal analyses of antivirus tools since Feb. 2004. The effort is led by Andreas Clementi, the project tester and a graduate student at the University of Innsbruck.

Microsoft's response:

Microsoft officials said they would examine the results of the tests to develop improvements.

"We recently learned that AV Comparatives conducted tests on Windows Live OneCare and the service did not pass their testing criteria," a Microsoft spokesman said. "We are looking closely at the methodology and results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better in future tests. We will also determine whether any learnings from these tests can be used to improve our services as part of our ongoing work to continually enhance Windows Live OneCare to ensure the highest level of protection and service that we can provide our customers.

"It is important to note that this service is tested by numerous organizations and Windows Live OneCare is still certified by the International Computer Security Association (ICSA) Labs, the industry's central authority for research, intelligence, and certification testing of products," Microsoft added. "It is also certified by West Coast Lab's Checkpoint certification system, recognized as a leading standard in the US and the de facto standard in Europe for security product certification and testing to real-world standards."

I think I will pass on OneCare for now.

Disaster Planning

The Federal Government has setup a web site for small business to help plan for and recover from a disaster.

http://www.ready.gov/business/index.html

Ready Business outlines commonsense measures business owners and managers can take to start getting ready. It provides practical steps and easy-to-use templates to help you plan for your company's future. These recommendations reflect the Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity Standard (NFPA 1600) developed by the National Fire Protection Association and endorsed by the American National Standards Institute and the Department of Homeland Security. It also provides useful links to resources providing more detailed business continuity and disaster preparedness information.

This site has some good information that can be helpful in developing a plan.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of us at JETxp!

Almost the whole team!  Next time we will try to get Mike to stay long enough to take a picture.

Cheap Bluetooth

If you are a little short on cash Elwyn has come up with a cheap Bluetooth solution.

Call or email Elwyn if you are interested in getting your hands on this nifty solution.

Enjoy!

New Law Requires Companies to keep track of Messages

A new Federal Law went into effect last week that requires U.S. Companies to keep track of email, instant messages and documents that are generated by their employees.

U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation.

Time to take a look at backup practices and procedures.

Have you gotten more Spam lately?

According to this Spam may be on the rise.

Everybody's seen it by now. Spam is up like gangbusters in the last few months. And not just in volume; a lot more of it is getting through filtering mechanisms that had previously been pretty reliable. It's an aggravating and depressing situation.

A number of factors have contributed to the situation, and what they all have in common, unfortunately, is that spammers are getting much more sophisticated.

Botnets have gotten so sophisticated that they're almost impossible to shut down. This surge of spam is, perhaps, a show of strength, as well as the botmasters exercising the fruits of their efforts developing an underground network.

How big is the surge? Postini, the largest hosted secure e-mail provider out there, handling over 1 billion messages a day, ought to know, and know in real time. The company says spam volume is up 120 percent over the last year, but 59 percent in the last two months. That's in line with numbers I've heard bandied about elsewhere, and it's a huge rate of increase.

Looks like we will be dealing with this problem for a while to come.

Listing Which Exchange Users Have or Are Delegates

http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange/2004/09/listing_which_e.html

If you plan to use Exchange 2007, get your house in order

From Techrepublic http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-6116071.html

ike Exchange 2000 did before it, Exchange 2007 is bringing
significant change to the Exchange messaging world. Start preparing now if you
eventually plan to make your way to Exchange 2007. In this tip, I'll discuss
some upgrade challenges you’ll face if you do decide to make a move to the new
version.

There are two important items to note with Exchange 2007:

1. Exchange 2007 only supports new installations. You can't perform an in-place upgrade of an older Exchange server with Exchange 2007. Instead, you must install Exchange 2007 onto brand new 64-bit hardware and migrate any data you wish to house on the new server from older Exchange servers. Note also that Exchange 2007 supports only 64-bit hardware running a 64-bit Windows operating system.
2. Exchange 5.5 must be jettisoned. If you’re still running Exchange 5.5, or even have it installed on your Exchange 2000/2003 mixed-mode network, it has to be gone before you can install an Exchange 2007 server into your Exchange organization. In short, before you can install Exchange 2007 into your Exchange organization, your organization must be running in native mode. There are rumors that Outlook in Office 2007 will also not support connections to Exchange 5.5 servers.

With plenty of advance warning, you can take the steps necessary to eliminate Exchange 5.5 from your organization before taking the Exchange 2007 leap.