Certain blogs such as TechCrunch, GigaOM and CNN blogs all who are hosted on WordPress’s servers are all down at the time of writing. Luckily the company knows about the issue and is working on restoring services right now, at least they say that on their official Twitter account an hour ago, a spokesperson commented “we’re working on restoring service now”.

So I was trying to figure out how to disable it so it wouldn’t show in my sidebar, and I found out it was actually extremely simple! There have been lot’s of websites reporting that you need to go into settings then go to a tab that said ‘Buzz’ which most people didn’t even seem to have (myself included) so I found another way! Just scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click “turn off Buzz”. Tough, right?

A Microsoft project manager has posted and then removed a blog post regarding what he feels the next version of Windows will be like.

The blog post “What’s in store for the next Windows” the blog has now been removed but a Google cached version is still available. The Windows Club, who originally spotted the blog posting, are guessing that the project manager is a member of the Windows Update team. The project manager doesn’t reveal anything specific but states:

“The minimum that folks can take for granted is that the next version will be something completly different from what folks usually expect of Windows – I am simply impressed with the process that Steven has setup to listen to our customers needs and wants and get a team together than can make it happen. To actually bring together dozens and dozens of teams across Microsoft to come up with a vision for Windows.next is a process that is surreal! The themes that have been floated truly reflect what people have been looking for years and it will change the way people think about PCs and the way they use them. It is the future of PCs…”

The project manager reflects back at Windows 7′s success in the market and argues that Microsoft’s new approach to developing Windows has worked. “The plan is to use a similar approach for the next version of Windows and till things are finalized you’re not going to get a “marketing” name from us” he states.

CIO interviewed Microsoft EMEA boss of consumer and online, John Mangelaars recently and quoted him as saying:

“[Apple is] doing well on the PC side but Windows 7 is a blockbuster. We got it really right. For me, Windows 8 will be mind-blowing.”

Most company officials have been shy about talking Windows 8 or whatever the next version of Windows will be called. In January an ex-Microsoft employee predicted Windows 8 would be released in July 2011.

“Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we’re very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that’s going to change,” Vic Gundotra, who leads Google’s mobile engineering, told journalists on Monday.

“We don’t want to comment on those rumors,” he said when pressed on the issue of the iPhone at a roundtable at industry trade fair Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “We think that relationship is stable.”

Asked about the Nexus Two, a second Google-branded phone aimed at enterprise customers that the company is expected to bring out, he said no decisions had been made yet about how many Google phones there would be or who would manufacture them.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC made the co-branded Nexus One unveiled last month, the first time Google has lent its brand to a consumer hardware product.

“We just haven’t made those decisions yet,” Gundotra said when asked whether HTC would also make the Nexus Two. “We decided to take the flagship phones, the best phones that were available, and those would have Google branding.

Some time ago, Facebook announced plans to link Facebook chat’s compatibility with XMPP-Jabber, the chat protocol implemented for Google Talk. Doing so would make Facebook Chat available for use with any IM client. After those plans were announced, Google never elaborated upon its development, leaving many to suspect the plans were scuttled.

However, just yesterday, Facebook announced the development of the chat client had been completed. With this available, users now have the option of using Facebook chat with any instant messaging client of their choice.

For those already using a multi-protocol client, configuration for use of this new feature is simple. All you need do is add a new Jabber or XMPP account, with the username following the username@chat.facebook.com model. Your password will be the same one you use for Facebook. For those who have not yet created a Facebook username, you’ll have to visit your settings page to create one.

After setup is complete, your Facebook friends will appear in your buddy list, becoming immediately available for chat sessions. Initially, it might prove a little confusing, as those Facebook friends who aren’t included on a friends list will appear in your instant messaging client’s buddy list. Without being automatically sorted, you’ll have to organize your friends by creating separate buddy lists. Though this might seem somewhat aggravating, it’s merely an additional step for those of you who absolutely need your friends organized in distinct groups.

This new service includes everything from your Facebook chat client, including profile thumbs and the ability to set your status as idle. Being new, the discovery of glitches are inevitable. Feel free to share them with us.

Social networking is all the craze, and this is just another means of staying tuned in to what your friends are up to.

You can read about the new Facebook Chat feature here.    Thanks GeeksChoice.

On top of all of that, you can now even get Facebook in your AIM client, and all it takes is a simple download, after that you just need to basically read your buddy list and it will tell you exactly what you need to do to. It is so simple, even my mom could set it up, and that is saying something.

After you sign into AIM, click the “Facebook Connect” button at the top of your buddy list to set up Facebook chat. When you are done your Facebook friends will be added to your buddy list. You can now chat with your friends who are using the Facebook site!

However this version of AIM is still in beta, which means it isn’t perfect and they are trying to work out all the kinks in the application. It does work pretty well, I like it because I am technically “on” Facebook all the time, and I can set alarms for when certain people sign on. It works great.

Google says it may allow people to participate in Google Buzz without having it integrated within Gmail, in addition to offering a combined Gmail service. That may be a welcome move for users of both products, especially in light of the substantial privacy concerns voiced this week about Google Buzz.

“It’s clear that interest in Buzz may extend beyond the current Gmail base, and we’re open to serving that community,” said Bradley Horowitz, Google’s VP of Product Marketing, when I spoke to him about some Buzz issues at the TED Conference.

Horowitz stressed that Google would still offer a version of Buzz within Gmail, in addition to any independent version.

“We think that Buzz within Gmail is a great experience, and we’ll keep offering that as well,” Horowitz said.

Be sure to read the rest of the article by going here.

I was browsing the web when I happened on a great site called PopupTest, ironically that link will open in a new window! This simple web site uses Javascript to test out your browsers popup blocking capabilites. It works great, I tried it with popup blocker enabled and disabled, and it was quite the treat to see those colorful popcorn popups come out of nowhere. I am really glad that I don’t have those!

If your computer is running pretty slow, I would suggest starting off with Test #2, it doesn’t open as many popups and they are easier to maintain.

Don’t worry though, the site has absolutely no spyware or malware installed anywhere on it, so its legitimate and you have nothing to worry about in terms of your computers safety.

If you have popup problems very often, even when you aren’t browsing the internet, I suggest you use an Anti-Spyware application such as Spybot Search and Destroy or Malwarebytes, that will help your computer out a lot so you wont have to call me up to have your computer fixed for you.

If however you live in the Naperville area and you need some help, then give me a call! I will come out as soon as possible and have your computer fixed up in a few hours, or even overnight, none of that week long waiting just to have it looked at from GeekSquad! Bring it on!

Now, getting rid of a printer is a little bit more normal, seeing as how it is almost cheaper to buy a new printer than get new ink, but why throw out a good computer? It seems insane to me to think that people do this and I don’t care if you have money or not, there is no reason for it.

I found out that some people really don’t know what to do with their computer, so if they have a problem with it, they think that it simply can not be repaired.

Here is an example, a friend of mine happened to have a small problem with their AVG anti-virus, they happened to be installing the 30 day trial version of it, when they thought that it was the Free edition which has no time limit set on it. Because of this, my friend got worried and didn’t know what to do, so she simply shut it down and let it rest for a few hours before finally returning and seeing the same error. Weird.

After this she gave me a call and I told her to go open up the “Programs and Features” menu from the Control Panel, and select AVG, and chose Uninstall. She got really excited when there was an option to convert to the free version, I hung up, and everything seemed to be working great!

Then, she got the message again. Saying she was on a trial of the full version. Confused, she shut it down, and walked away for a couple hours.

When she turned it on, it was great! No errors, no nothing. Weird. But then her printer started to act up for seemingly no reason at all! Ah! More problems. It took a good swift kick of System Restore to get that working like normal again, apparently she tried to update her drivers and didn’t do a very good job of it…woopsies!

Anyways, just those two simple problems should never equal a brand new computer purchase. It just doesn’t make much sense at all. How many people do this? I really really want to know because this is one of the first times I have seen something like this, and I have a strange feeling that there are more people like this in the world, let me know if you know of anyone!

One of the updates from this month’s giant Patch Tuesday is wreaking havoc on some users Windows PCs by giving them the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), according to a thread on Microsoft Answers, the company’s support forum. Based on what users have found, the update in question is KB977165, which is described by Microsoft as “MS10-015: Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege” (for those wondering, yes this is the 17-year-old Windows flaw we reported about last month). The issue was first reported by Krebs on Security.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-015 goes into further detail about the flaw being patched: “The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logged on to the system and then ran a specially crafted application. To exploit either vulnerability, an attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.” The security update is rated Important on the versions of Windows it patches: Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows 7 (32-bit).

The majority of users who are complaining about the issue are on Windows XP, but some users in the thread mention this occurs for them on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Those running Windows 2000, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 have yet to report problems, though the issue is fairly new so it’s still possible that as more and more users install the update, the BSOD will creep up on the remaining versions of Windows as well. We have yet to see the problem occur, as most of our systems and those of our peers are running Windows 7 64-bit or Windows Server 2008 R2.

The thread starter explains the problem at hand: “I updated 11 windows xp updates today from Microsoft.com and restarted my pc like it asked me to. (There has definitely been absolutely NO CHANGE in my computer software or hardware installation apart from [these] updates) From then on, Windows [could not] restart again! It is stopping at the blue screen with the following message:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA Technical Information: STOP: 0×00000050 (0×80097004, 0×00000001, 0×80515103, 0×00000000).

“I tried all kinds of restarting option[s], namely safe modes etc. but everything is returning to the blue screen,” he concluded. Another user wrote: “Samething [sic] happened to me. I think there is something seriously wrong with the update. I can’t even open in safe mode…”

Users in the thread have tracked down a fix, though it requires using a copy of the Windows disc (or for netbook users without an optical drive, a bootable USB drive with Windows on it):

1. Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console (see KB307654 for help with this step)
2. Type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165 $\spuninst
3. Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt
4. Type this command: systemroot
5. When complete, type this command: exit

This fix has been marked as the answer to the thread by Cody, a Microsoft Support Engineer. Formally, the suggestion actually says to repeat steps two through four with all the following patches: KB978262, KB971468, KB978037, KB975713, KB978251, KB978706, KB977165, KB975560, and KB977914. Since that post, users have concluded in the thread that KB977165 is the problematic update.

Robear Dyer, a Microsoft MVP, gave three pointers to users in the thread:

1. Uninstalling KB977165 will automatically restore the previous versions of ntkrnlpa.exe and ntoskrnl.exe so there’s no need to find “a way to replace them.”
2. That being said, the newer versions of ntkrnlpa.exe and ntoskrnl.exe address the very serious and currently-being-exploited security vulnerability described in MS10-015, so you really do not want to avoid this update! Instead, open a free support incident per my previous reply.
3. Encountering a STOP error (e.g., 0×00000050) after installing this update could mean that your computer’s already been compromised by the security vulnerability addressed by MS10-015, yet another reason to open a free support incident!

The only problem with these suggestions is that most users can’t boot their computer to uninstall the update (both “Last Known Good Configuration” and Safe Mode don’t work). While the solution most users have found to work is to boot off the Windows XP disc and use the Recovery Console, Dyer is suggesting finding some other means to uninstall the update. Users are naturally more interested in getting their computer functioning again than making sure it is secure.

“Microsoft is investigating reports of an installation issue with a security update released on February 9, 2010,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. “We are investigating the issue to determine the cause of the issue. Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com. Those in the United States can contact Customer Service and Support at no charge using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-727-2338 (PCSAFETY). Those outside the United States can find local contact numbers at support.microsoft.com/international.” The company has since pulled the patch from Windows Update.

[via ArsTechnica]

Troubleshooting, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a form of problem solving most often applied to repair of failed products or processes. It is a logical, systematic search for the source of a problem so that it can be solved, and so the product or process can be made operational again.”

Perfect! Troubleshooting is what is needed to get the job done the right way the first time, and it normally first involves recreating the issue. Once the issue has been recreated it is time to see what different options could make this happen, for the icons moving all around desktop we obviously have to look for ants inside the monitor, because that is definitely the first problem I would think of.

No of course not! The first thing you want to check for is a running anti-virus and anti-spyware application. If there are neither, or just one of the two, then there might be a virus or some spyware/malware/adware lurking around the bend of each and every sector of your hard drive!

Those are the ants I am truly speaking of. So then we run some Anti-virus or Anti-spyware programs, and get rid of those pesky ants using some e-Raid.

This is just one short idea of what troubleshooting is, lot’s of times it can go on and on and on until you find the perfect solution that has fixed the seemingly perfect problem. It’s good to have your computer guy run troubleshooting techniques, it is almost always the best answer to your problem.