Microsoft Announce Vista Service Pack 1 and XP Service Pack 3

The wait is finally over for the much anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Also announced is the legendary Internet rumour; XP Service Pack 3. Vista SP1 will be released shortly in Beta form to a limited audience. Apparently it will address reliability issues with third party drivers & applications to cut the number of blue screen errors and also add business-level improvements.

The download is to be somewhere in the region of 50mb and should be available in the first quarter of 2008.

Not much to excitement regarding XP SP3 though. After months of leaks about it's existence and even people claiming to have the beta for download (why would anybody download a beta version of a service pack?) it seems that it might be no more than a roll-up of the security updates that have been available to download through Windows Update over the years.

The only addition is to be the introduction of Network Access Protection, which is a Vista feature being ported back to the XP operating system to allow connection to Server 2008 which is scheduled for Feb 27th 2008.

Are Microsoft the last ones to hear of the Xbox 360 discount?

It's been a whole 6 days that we here in the UK have been able to take advantage of the XBox 360 price cut. You can now pick up a 360 Premium for £249.99 and the Core system for £179.99. That is unless you visit the Microsoft website where they're still advertising the system at the old price of £279.99. You'd think that Microsoft of all people would get their own pricing right? I've check many other web sites, some quite small outfits, and everybody seems to be advertising the correct pricing.

You can see the page here: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hardware/family101.htm

Game Station Manager Gets Upset At Returned Broken XBox 360 Elite

A friend called me yesterday to tell me that they’d finally upgraded their Xbox to an Xbox 360. Turns out that she’d made the decision just as the Elite was released in the UK and that the nice guy’s at Game Station had convinced her that all Xbox 360’s are a bit crap but that the Elite is a different machine altogether.

Now I’m not too sure if there is much of a difference between the two except for the HDMI socket and the 120gb HDD but still, I was impressed that she’d gone and bought a 360 at last and hadn’t tried to save money by walking away with a core system.

The only thing that didn’t impress her was that she’d paid £325 in total as she wanted Bio Shock and after leaving the store and crossing the road to GAME (a shop I dislike enormously and yes I know Game Station is now owned by GAME) and had see the same deal for £309. Anyway, she gritted her teeth and picked up a used copy of Burnout Revenge and Oblivion at £20 each and made her way home to set it all up. I got the call, firstly to boast about the Elite and secondly to ask why her picture looked crap compared to the one my ‘still-broken’ Premium showed.

After explaining that she has a HD Ready TV with a spare HDMI socket, and that’s what the extra cable in the box was for, she was really happy to be an independent HD 360 owner.

Fast forward 3 hours… After 2 hours of Bio Shock, Burnout Revenge is popped in and off she goes for a bit of road rage. I in the mean time have popped over to my local GAME and picked up the £309 deal for an Elite and Bio Shock. My Premium system is still sitting on the side whilst I get my act together and send it back to have the Ring Of Death extracted. Anyway, I wasn’t going to be out-done and figured that I could persuade her to set up Xbox Live so we could go head-to-head online.

As I get home my mobile rings and I hear ‘My Xbox has frozen… When I turn it off and on again, I sometimes get 3 red lights on the front’. Wow, after 3 hours of playing the brand new Elite has the Ring Of Death! What the hell? Anyway, I popped over to see it and sure enough by the time I get there there’s no picture at all, just 3 red lights.

Now it gets really frustrating; we pop it all back in to the box and I suggest that she should go back to Game Station and get it replaced. Its 6pm on a bank holiday so it’ll have to wait for tomorrow which gives her time to think about the offer I got in GAME and so she decides she’ll go back to Game Station, get a refund and pick up the £309 deal.

As you can bet Game Station were not happy. Sales assistant takes one look at it and this is what happens:

Sales Assistant: No problem, we’ll replace it.

Friend: No. I’d like my money back thanks.

Sales Assistant: But we don’t normally do that.

Friend: Yeah ok, I’d like my money back because it’s faulty.

Sales Assistant: But we’ll give you an unopened replacement.

Friend: No thanks, I’d just like my money back.

Sales Assistant: I’ll just get the manager.

Manager: Hi, how can I help you?

Friend: I’d like a refund on my Elite that I bought yesterday; it’s faulty.

Manager: I’m sorry, but we can only really replace it for you.

Friend: No, you can give me a refund; you have to if I ask for one and the item I’m returning is faulty.

…

At this point the manager is actually looking angry and the queue is building up. My friend says once more that she wants a refund because the 360 is faulty and she’s firm enough let him know that she doesn’t want a replacement. Then the manager says something quite amazing in front of a store full of customers. ‘Well all Xbox 360’s are faulty. Everybody knows that’… What? My jaw hit the floor. You could see the amazement on the faces of the hardcore gamers in the shop.

The obvious reply to this, and the one my friend used, was ‘well why the hell would I want a replacement then?’ At this point she got her refund and we left the store. He's lost our business, I was very loyal to his store, spending about £2,000 there this year alone.

The story doesn’t have a happy ending either, we’d spent the best part of 20 minutes in Game Station and my friend was on her lunch break. Being as impatient as me she rushed in to GAME only to come out with Blue Dragon instead of Bio Shock because they’d sold out. The manager has told her she can do a straight swap when Bio comes back in but I reckon that’ll be one hell of a battle…

Little Big Planet; This is surely a reason to buy the PS3?

I've had my PS3 sitting idle for months now. The only game I own is Motorstorm which whilst great looking certainly isn't in the same league as Burnout (Roll on September and Paradise). It's such a shame that it's probably going to be a year from launch before the PS3 gets the first game that shows us what the PS3 really can do. If you've been on another planet for the last 6 months, here's a collection of Little Big Planet videos:

Yet Another Nigerian 911 Scam

Legal Attorney And Solicitor


From : The Principal Attorney
Royal Chambers & Associates.
(Legal Practitioners).
45 Rue Boulevard
Lome-Togo
Tel: 00 228-093 8468
Email: lawfirmtg-1@lawyer.com (I like his domain name!)



Dear Mike,

I have decided to contact you due to the urgency of this matter.Let me start by introducing myself properly to you.

I am Barrister Bolan Kodjo , Personal Attorney to your late uncle Engr.J C. xxxxxxxxx(Snr) a contractor with the Federal Government of lome-togo,until his death last three years ago in political crisis in Abidjan capital of Cote d'Ivoire,He Banked with ECOBANK SARL ,lome-togo and had a closing balance as at the end of September, 2003 worth US$20.5,000,000.00(Twenty Million Five Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars).

The Bank now expects the Next of Kin to come forward as Beneficiary.Efforts has been made by the ECOBANK SARL of lome-togo to get in touch with any of the Deceased Family Relatives,but they have met with no success.

As the deceased being a foreigner,that was why I decided to contact you so that you can put claim on this fund as you bear the same last name with him. Now the management under the influence of the bank Chairman and Members of the Board of directors, that arrangement has been made for the fund to be declared Unclaimed In order to avert this negative development, it is my duty to contact you so that you can stand as the next of kin to his properties.

All documents and proof to enable you get this fund will be carefully worked out by me for this claim.

I have secured from the probate an order of Mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries,and more so I am assuring you that this claim is 100% risk free.

Now it is left for you to deceide on what you will give me as my percentage for assisting you in this claim.I hope to hear from you soon or call me immediately you receive this mail.

I want to let you know that this trasaction have to be done legitimately and confidential Please Kindly forward to me the following information for easier communication on this regards .

1.Your private telephone/Fax-(if available)
2.Private email address...

I await your kind attention as quickly as possible for more information and directives .

Yours in Service,

Signed.......
Barr. Bolan Kodjo (Esq)


Royal Chambers & Associates.
(Legal Practitioners).
45 Rue Boulevard
Lome-Togo
Tel:00 228-093 8468
Email: lawfirmtg-1@lawyer.com

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 - is this the start?

There is a lot of talk at the moment regarding release Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1 and perhaps we’re a step closer today as a couple of updates have been made available for standalone download from the Microsoft website. Nobody is saying when these will be available through Windows Update, but I imagine it’ll be next Tuesday 16^th.

According to MS the issues addressed have all been reported by users using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.

This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who are using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.

By applying this update, you can achieve better performance and responsiveness in various scenarios. This update also improves the reliability of Windows Vista.

I personally think the most important part of these patches is the improvement to the appalling file copy system we’ve been stuck with since the release of Vista. You’ve probable seen the extraordinary time it takes to copy large amounts of file. How many times have you stared at the screen for minutes on end whilst your P4 with 2 gig of Ram calculates the remaining time?

Anyway, the patches can be downloaded from the links below for both 32bit and 64bit versions of Vista. You will need to validate your installation of Vista before you’re given access to the file downloads.

Performance and Reliability Update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979/en-us

Compatibility and Reliability Update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194/en-us

Guess What! Forza Probably Did Brick My Xbox 360

Well, I went and bought Forza Motorsport 2 a few weeks ago even though I knew not to. It was on sale in Asda for £29.99, so I couldn't resist. Anyway, I had a few games in the first week and then took a couple of weeks without playing. I decided to pop it in last Friday and try out a couple of laps. On Saturday, I noticed that my Xbox Dashboard kept randomly freezing but thought no more of it. Most of the time a quick reset was all that was needed to get back up and running. I was really getting in to Bomberman Live and didn't go near Forza again. Then I downloaded the xbox dashboard update last night. After the system rebooted I was greeted with the Ring Of Death!

I'm really not sure that it was caused by Forza, I know lots of people tend to blame the updates for wrecking things, but I have a feeling that Forza might just have pushed it over the edge. Then again it is a release-system so it's lasted a fair time compared to others.

It was probably a stupid thing to do I know and hopefully the extended Microsoft warranty will cover a repair.

Xbox 360 Bricked by Forza Motorsport