Redmond's Salvation [SecurityFocus]

Service Pack 2 for XP represents a sea change in Microsoft's security posture. Here's why you should ignore the naysayers and start planning your upgrade.

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/259

New host!

Home pages now on 1&1 hosting, including Donna's cake pages. Subdomains are now in effect on both ends, so I can now use http://brian.thegrahamdesign.com/ for my site. Woohoo!

Doom3 Here We Come...

Sweet, I read through the [H]ard|OCP article and found their minimum specs, and my rig should come in fine. Here's what they found to be the decent playable minimum:

DX 9.0 compatible 3D card w/ 64MB RAM*
MS Windows 2000/XP
Pentium 4 1.5 GHz or Athlon XP 1500+
384 MB RAM
8x CD-ROM
2.2 GB of HD space
Broadband (for multiplayer)

*Supported 3D Graphics chipsets:
ATI: Radeon 8500, 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
NVIDIA: GeForce 3, GeForce 4MX, GeForce 4 Titanium, GeForce FX, GeForce 6

And here's my specs:

ATI Radeon 9000 128MB
WinXP Home
Pentuim 4 1.6 GHz
512MB RAM

Now just to get a copy... maybe I can borrow it from a friend when they're done...

New LAN Party Game...plus some future releases to keep track of

A friend at work (Mike L) passed along to me a site with the release dates for upcoming games:

DOOM3
Full Spectrum Warrior
MoH: Pacific Assault
Star Wars: Battlefront
Ghost Recon 2
Star Wars: Republic Commando
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Operation Flashpoint 2

Denim Day

Just wanted to pass along this website, for Lee Jeans. In association with the Susan G. Komen foundation, which does the race for the cure for breast cancer, Lee Jeans sponsers Denim Day. If you office will do it, they get a promotion kit. Everyone pays $5 to wear jeans to work for the day (in October) and all the money goes directly to breast cancer research and education- nothing is taken out for Lee! So, if you think your boss might be interested, please check out the site!

Two weeks ago, my wife was given my first clean bill of health in two years, largely due to the medicines they have discovered through funded research. Very few of us go untouched by breast cancer, or some other kind of cancer, and this is a very easy way to help!

Windows XP Security and Wireless Authentication (Windows & .NET Magazine)

Microsoft recently published its "Windows XP Security Guide," which offers both instruction and a set of tools (several documents, templates, and scripts) that can help you better secure Windows XP systems whether they are part of an Active Directory (AD) domain or are standalone systems. The guide also offers advice about configuring XP in environments that require "an extremely high level of security in which application compatibility or usability may be constrained."

The company also published a second step-by-step guide (in Word format), "Obtaining and Installing a VeriSign WLAN Server Certificate for PEAP-MS-CHAP v2 Wireless Authentication," which explains how to obtain certificates from Verisign using a custom Web application built by Verisign specifically for Internet Authentication Service (IAS) users and how to configure IAS to use the certificates for wireless connectivity authentication.

Both guides are available for download at the company's Download Center Web site.

Stop. What's That Sound? (Kuro5hin)

"When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war ... with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world cannot manage its economy ... when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad, or to any major city at home, then it's time for new leadership for the United States."

The ellipses are to keep you from guessing too soon. Give up? That was Dick Nixon in 1968. Nowadays Kennedy and Johnson are heroes who made a "mistake" in Vietnam while Nixon twirls a handlebar mustache in Hell. But to look back at what we thought at the time is to see parallels to today. (Good post for some pondering over at Kuro5hin.)

Doom 3 Reviews and my box (Fozziebear)

Now that Doom 3 has officially shipped to stores, Computer Gaming World just posted its Doom 3 review, along with about 100 or so new screens. GameSpy has an in-progress weblog and first-look impressions on the "claustrophobic corridors" of the game, Telefragged posted an excellent review:

"DOOM 3 smashes through all the hype and delivers a grand slam of action, story, atmosphere, and pure terror. It'll last you long enough to make you feel thoroughly satisfied (and a little shaken as well), and the multiplayer mode isn't as bare as some thought it would be. id Software is back in full force with this game, and I recommend it to anyone who likes a dark, visceral, and evil first person shooter."

And Time Magazine has a feature on Doom 3 and id. Also make sure you check out [H]ard|OCP's recent article to give you some better details on how the game runs on various hardware configurations.

A guy I work with (Rob C) listened to my system specs (P4 1.6, 512MB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon 9000) and suggested I give it a try, it might actually come within playability. Also, I need to check within FarCry (which won't let me play single-player without freezing up) and see if the video accelleration is recognized correctly. If it's not finding it right, I'll have to force it otherwise it will be using purely hardware accelleration...