Want to create an XP SP3 disk? If you have every had to wipe a hard drive and reinstall Windows XP you will know how long your PC takes downloading and installing all the updates to the operating system. The downloads seem to take forever and the problem is multiplied if you have several computers to deal with.
One way of reducing the pain is to create a Windows XP Service Pack 3 disk, containing all of the SP1, SP2 and SP3 updates rolled into one. You can download a .iso file of SP3 from the Microsoft website here and simply burn it to a blank CD. ISO files are a bit like .zip files but contain the entire contents of a CD or DVD. Providing you have a CD or DVD-R/W drive and suitable burning software it is very easy to do. Here is a simple three step guide:
- Download the .iso file from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en. It is around 350Mb so will take a while.
- Start your CD/DVD burning software (Nero Burning ROM is ideal and comes bundled with many drives) and open the .iso file.
- Pop in a blank CD and click the ‘Burn’ button.
If you don’t already have suitable software you can download free and open source .iso burning software from a number of places. ISOrecorder is free for personal use and can be downloaded from here.
admin Hints & tips download, iso, pack, service, SP3, Xp
The Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) officially adopted the Bluetooth 3.0 HS specification today. Not that you would know it from the official Bluetooth.com and Bluetooth.org websites – neither appear to have any mention of it, apart from an almost fact-free blog entry.
Intended to aid the transfer of large files such as video, audio and high resolution digital photos, the new version supports speeds of up to 24Mbps. It does this by incorporating support for 802.11g to enable Bluetooth over WiFi. The result should be a standard that delivers high data speeds and greater energy-efficiency.
Looking further into the future the next iteration of Bluetooth is likely to incorporate Ultra Wideband technology, which should boost data speeds to as much as 480 Mbps. Ideal for wirelessly delivering pictures that 72 inch glasses-free 3D display you will have in your living room by then.
admin News 3, bluetooth, high, HS, speed, wireless
The UK Labour government have announced a subsidy of £5000 for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Plug-in hybrid cars can be recharged from the mains or ‘on the go’ by a conventional engine.
The bad news is that the subsidy won’t be available until 2011 – after the next General Election, when Labour are highly unlikely to be still in power.
The other bad news is the amount of money set aside – £250m. That is enough for 50,000 electric cars out of UK car sales of over 2 million a year. Maybe they’d be better off spending the money on putting charging stations where all those derelict petrol stations are.
bill News car, electric, subsidy, £5000
In a major embarrasment for the UK government, the European Commission has launched a case against the UK over its privacy and personal data protection laws. According to the EU the UKs laws do not properly protect “the confidentiality of communications by prohibiting interception and surveillance without the user’s consent”.
The case was triggered by BT’s tests last year of Phorm, the controversial ‘behavioural advertising’ technology. Complaints at the time resulted in a police investigation which eventually concluded that the trial was compliant with UK law. The government claimed at the time that UK legislation was fully compliant with the European Directive. The EU clearly disagrees, arguing that, amongst other things the UK lacks ‘an independent national supervisory authority dealing with such interceptions’.
EU member countries are required to introduce laws to put EU Directives into effect. The UK is generally very good at doing this but may have slipped up in this case. The government have two months to respond to the EU after which proceedings will commence towards taking the UK to the European Court of Justice.
admin News case, commission, directive, EU, european, phorm
HDMI cables do the same job for High Definition digital TV signals as SCART cables do for analogue TV. Not only do they convey the picture and sound signals but also some control signals. The original HDMI cable spec, Category 1, allowed for data rates of up to 75 MHZ, which is adequate for a 1080i HDTV signal.
The latest TVs and Blu-Ray DVD players both support 1080p video, which has twice as many lines a second and therefore a higher data rate. Consequently a category 1 cable just doesn’t cut the mustard. Although it might appear to work, it is quite likely to create intermittent problems.
The specification of Category 2 cables requires that they support signals of up to 340 MHz – over four times higher than Category 1. This allows them to support 1080p signals, even allowing for future increases in sample resolution to over 8 bits per colour and frame (refresh) rates of up to 120 frames per second.
So in other words when you hook your £700 TV to your £200 Blu-Ray player, don’t use a £5 cable!
bill Hints & tips 1080p, category, HD, hdmi