Microsoft fixes Windows Genuine Advantage problems

From Friday until Saturday Microsoft had to repair a problem with the Window Genuine Advantage validation system. If you attempted to validate during that time and were refused or received a message that your software wasn't genuine please retry again. Microsoft worked around he clock until the problem was rectified.

Computeruniverse in Germany

One of the questions I receive the most from English speaking people who reside in Europe (except for the UK) is for websites which offer a large number of computer products that ship to most E.U. countries. That includes items such as video cards, monitors, PC cases, etc. Computeruniverse in Germany is one such store and they offer good prices with excellent selection. At the top right of their webpage there is a small UK English flag. Click on this and you'll see the majority of their site in English. For future benefit I have added their link to the top left of my blog.


http://www.computeruniverse.net/?PID=446203

Google Including StarOffice in the Google Pack

Google apparently has decided it wants to offer more competition against Microsoft this week when Google decided it would include StarOffice in their Google Pack. What a brillant move! Google gets to offer an MS Office alternative that hopefully more people will pick up and use. Sun (who makes StarOffice) might have the benefit of getting more exposure to their software.

Windows Vista and SP1

No doubt many of you have seen Microsoft Vista SP1 (evaluation version) floating around the web. I suppose Microsoft will eventually try to get rid of these but I think they should hold off. With so many people installing this just to get a feel of SP1 it could be quite beneficial in a way.

1. Most of those people installing this already have Vista and they want to see if there is any improvement over the existing version.

2. Some people want to test stability of SP1 for themselves. For all intensive purposes I can tell you quite honestly that it is super stable. Of course I have friends who are beta testers, so I've seen this for myself.

3. It might give Microsoft an overall analysis of just how many people are interested in SP1. I think they will find more interest than they realize. With such a super smooth pre-beta release that seems to have a faultless install there is really NO reason NOT to have this ready by Christmas, so that OEMs can entice more customers to buy PCs for the holiday season.

4. Kudos to the Microsoft Vista team that developed this DVD pre-beta SP1 build. The Microsoft Vista development team has really pushed themselves into a whole new quality bracket. Congrats!

September 10th Barcelona Debut?

I received a postcard in the mail inviting me to a special premiere on 10 September. Unfortunately I can not attend but this is probably an invitation to the official release of the AMD Barcelona CPU which is long overdue. If AMD can entice its customer base well enough and stir enough interest, then its consumer CPU line which should be released in the last quarter of this year should help the company ready itself for Christmas and hopefully some good profit earnings.

Excellent Cooler Master European Support

Recently a computer which I own in Europe starting to exhibit a 'cold boot' problem. The problem was caused by a faulty power supply, Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850 watt. I contacted Cooler Master technical support in Europe and they told me to send in the power supply. I must say that on the day they received my power supply they immediately sent a replacement on the same business day back to me. In other words a 48 hour turnaround time. I have to compliment the Cooler Master European support team for their outstanding efforts. It's good to know that good customer support still exists within some companies. Kudos to the Cooler Master European Support team.

EU issues anti-trust statement against Intel

First and foremost I wish to say that I admire both Intel and AMD as companies. Earlier today the European Commission issued a statement accusing Intel of anti-competitive behavior. This was after the result of an investigation which required months (years) of work. Intel would be wise, in my personal opinion, to fully cooperate with the European Commission and offer an out of court settlement to AMD. If Intel prefers to battle the European Commission in courts just as Microsoft has done it would simply make things worse. Microsoft prefers to use the European Courts but just how much money is being spent from the company on a protracted legal battle. Admittently Microsoft pulls in about 1 billion U.S. dollars a week so it has plenty of money, but still millions have to be spent in courts which would be better spent on investors.

http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/314&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en