Month: April 2008

Geek Software of the Week: Jetico Personal Firewall!

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Jetico Personal FirewallOK, so this week I had to rebuild a Windows Me system for a customer. (I know… I know… bear with me!) It was a 500 mHz system with 192 meg of memory. (Ouch!) They were connecting it directly to the Internet with a cable modem, and NO router/firewall between them and the evil, cruel world! (OK, it was BAD!) So, I needed a firewall that would run on Windows 98 variants, and keep the PC safe (well, safer!) So, here’s what I used:

Jetico Personal Firewall

“Jetico Personal Firewall v.1 is the most powerful and flexible personal firewall for legacy Microsoft operating systems: Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0. Jetico Personal Firewall is designed to give the user full control over the networking subsystem. The key principles are rule based stateful filtering, open configuration, detailed logging and live statistics. Open configuration means: no hidden rules or dependencies. User can inspect and modify every bit of Jetico Personal Firewall configuration. In conjunction with rule based filters it gives the user unprecedented control over network related events. Fine grained logging and statistics simplify both network events and firewall configuration analysis. The unique live statistics display which firewall rules are applied in the real-time. All these things combined together makes more that powerful firewall – the ultimate tool to protect and monitor your system. And last, but not least: Jetico Personal Firewall v.1 is FREE! Supported operating systems: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP”

Windows XP Will Be Unavailable After June 30th!

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So, it is what it is… no more purchasing Windows XP after June 30, 2008. Only Vista after that. Can you say, “Microsoft is doomed?” I knew you could! Well… unless you have a super cheap PC!

Windows XP’s final day still June 30, but low-cost PCs get two more years

“Confirming the rumors that devices such as Asus’ Eee PC are prolonging the life of XP, Microsoft today announced that the previously-established June 30, 2008 cutoff date for OEM and retail Windows XP sales was final, except for the new class of what the company has termed ULCPCs: Ultra Low-Cost PCs. The nebulously-named class of computers including UMPCs, MIDs, Origami devices, subnotebooks and even desktops that offer lower power have received the official Ultra Low Cost PC (ULCPC) moniker from Microsoft. Companies making these devices have also received an extended 2-year period (or until Windows 7 comes out, whichever is latest) in which their machines can come equipped with Windows XP, but only the Home edition of the operating system. Microsoft has said that the extension reflects the company’s commitment to deliver ‘the right version of Windows for new device categories as they emerge.’ The company said today, ‘[We] recognize that there is a growing class of hardware-constrained, lower cost PCs that would benefit from a different Windows based solution. While Windows Vista provides an easier and more secure user experience, Windows XP Home provides an effective solution on these devices from a performance and cost perspective.'”

Veeam Introduces Backup and Replication in One at VMworld Europe 2008

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It looks like a great product. I use Veeam FastSCP (free, excellent utility for VMware.) Veeam FastSCP was a Geek Software of the Week, check out this link:

Veeam FastSCP

Here’s the video introduction of Veeam’s new Backup Product (with a neat magic trick!)

It is a virtual machine (guest system) backup both at the image level and at the file level within the guest system. It also integrates with VCP. Very nice!

“A groundbreaking disaster recovery solution for VMware Infrastructure 3 that combines backup and replication in one product.

Veeam Backup is the first solution that combines backup and replication in a single product for fast recovery of your VMware ESX Servers. Backup is easy – recovery can be hard. But with Veeam Backup, fast recovery is easier than you ever thought possible.

Features and Benefits

Backup and Replication in one – Now, with Veeam Backup, organizations can benefit from a unified solution for both backup and replication to protect mission-critical virtual machines from both hardware and software failure.

Fast file-level recovery – Veeam Backup’s fast file-level recovery feature allows ESX administrators to restore individual files in minutes without extracting the full VM image to a local drive. An administrator can extract individual files to the latest state or to a specific point in time.

Data de-duplication – Veeam Backup allows you to minimize storage costs for virtual machine backups. Veeam’s data de-duplication and compression are especially valuable when backing up multiple virtual machines created from a single template or VMs with gigs of free space on their logical drives.

Replication rollback – A replica produced with Veeam Backup can be restored to a particular point in time. This protects your infrastructure against both hardware and software corruptions.

Integration with VCB – Veeam Backup is the only backup solution that enables you to run incremental backup and replication jobs through VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB). Using its proprietary “VCB on-the-fly” technology, Veeam Backup doesn’t require extra space on the VCB proxy for VM images, allowing for faster backups. Veeam Backup operates either with or without VCB, letting the user choose whether to use VCB or not for either standard backup or replication backup.

Integration with Veeam FastSCP – To date, Veeam’s FastSCP freeware has been downloaded more than 28,000 times, and Veeam Backup shares a common interface with FastSCP, allowing users to manage backup, replication and file copying from a single screen.”

Veeam Backup

Microsoft Comes Clean! Promises Rebates on Vista and Windows!

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After years of sticking it to the world with a cruddy operating system, the new management at Microsoft has decided that a token rebate of $25.00 per registered user of either Windows XP or Windows Vista would help compensate computer users for the hassles caused by Windows. “We felt that it was the least that we could do,” said Mark Buerocrite, VP of Public Relations in Redmond.

Oh, and a very warm place under the earth has reported snow for the first time as well… APRIL FOOLS!

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