User reports began to spread on the Internet who encountered a blank device manager and network connections after upgrading their Windows XP system to Service Pack 3. The problem was largely attributed to software that was monitoring the Registry for changes, many Symantec customers had problems with a feature called SymProtect that would cause the post-installation problems.

Symantec issued a patch on June 5th and Microsoft released a patch as well a few days ago that should solve the issue for users who are experiencing blank device managers and are missing networks in the network connections menu.

Users now have the choice to use the Microsoft patch or the Symantec fix to correct the issue. Using the Symantec fix however makes only sense if a Symantec product was installed on the system during the upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3.

continue reading "Microsoft issues Windows XP Service Pack 3 Update Fix"

Everyone who has to work on multiple computers knows that it can be extremely hard to have the same data available on all of the computers where it is needed. If you take Firefox as an example you might miss your bookmarks, settings and stored passwords on another computer and it would be pretty convenient to have access to them there as well.

I use Moz Backup for Firefox to backup my data and import it to my Toshiba Notebook that I use when I’m traveling. Mozilla Weave is using a slightly different approach that automates the process further. It provides an online storage for Firefox 3 profile data that can be used on any computer connecting if the correct user data is provided.

continue reading "Mozilla Weave Synchronizes Firefox Data Online"

Today was such an evil day full of trying to solve a riddle with only a few clues that I had to find something interesting funny to post at the end of it. I loved to watch MacGyver when I was a kid, it was always cool to see how he was able to build something from nothing to get out of dangerous situations.

Much like the A-Team did in the good old days when they build some huge car to break out of their prison. It seems that someone wasted a lot of time to add a list of problems solved by MacGyver to Wikipedia. Every episode of the five seasons is mentioned in the list and it’s interesting and sometimes funny to read.

Stuff like “MacGyver builds a distraction by balancing pots and pans on a bag of ice that melts from heat produced by a toaster oven. He spreads vegetable oil in the ground to incapacitate some kidnappers” or “MacGyver starts out in Berlin, trying to escape with a microfilm containing government secrets. He takes the place of a dead person and is carried in a coffin towards a bridge, where he is dumped into the water by friends. Upon hitting the water, Mac hits a button and turns his coffin into a jet ski, riding away to safety” are precious, don’t you think..

continue reading "List of problems solved by MacGyver"

I’m a huge fan of the Awesome Search, now Searchery, add-on for Firefox 3 which added the capability of performing Google searches in the Firefox 3 location bar. I loved it so much because it helped me get rid of the search bar in the main Firefox 3 toolbar which in turn gave me more space for other icons and menus in that toolbar.

I had some complaints however. The major one was that Amazon Search was included when using the add-on which was pretty useless to me and that there was not a way to add other search engines, say Wikipedia, Yahoo Search or even from my own website to the add-on.

Ryan from Cybernetnews seemed to have similar thoughts when he reviewed the add-on after finding it on my website. He went a step ahead however and wrote his own version of it that provides all the features that I missed in the original extension.

continue reading "Cybersearch Firefox Extension"

Good news for those users who prefer to stick with Firefox 2 for now. Their browser was updated to version 2.0.0.15 today and it is recommended to update Firefox 2 as soon as possible. The update is a security and stability update which should be available right now from the official download page.

That page is unfortunately down at the moment as are the release notes for that new version. Not exactly sure what’s going on currently because the main pages and the developer news website with the announcement is reachable. The update can also be installed by checking for updates in Firefox 2. This can be done in the HELP menu.

The website is working again. The direct download link and the release notes are now accessible. The update fixed four critical, four high, 2 moderate and 2 low security vulnerabilities. Make sure to update asap.

continue reading "Firefox 2.0.0.15 released"