Have Laptop Will Travel

Live Journal Sponsored Content

Originally posted on September 29, 2006 @ 11:42 pm

Live JournalLiveJournal announced this evening that they will soon begin offering sponsored communities with benefits to participating users and sponsored features provided by companies other than LiveJournal.

The SixApart owned social networking site has slowly rolled these plans out over recent months but just made the official announcement tonight. Early feedback from users is decidedly negative.

I miss the days of Live Journal being 100% Open Source and not so commercial but I guess for things to grow and move forward, it’s bound to happen.

I was an early adopter of LJ as we use to call it and I still have my paid account which I keep for archival purposes. Of course the bulk of my content is found right here on my Have Laptop Will Travel site.

One of the great things about LiveJournal was if you had a paid account, you received all kinds of special features.

Brad FitzpatrickLive Journal really took care of the paid members and even the free users and because of the mass amounts of paid users, there were no advertisements.

When the time came and Brad sold his baby to Six Apart back in January 2005, a lot of LJ users asked “What does this mean for LiveJournal?” and we were told:

Nothing earth-shattering. LiveJournal development and support will continue, and will probably even accelerate.

We were even told that paid members wouldn’t be blasted with advertisments. Yay, no SPAM. I don’t like SPAM.

According to Six Apart, sponsored communities will be groups sponsored by advertisers who are offering group members things like exclusive movie trailers, behind-the-scenes footage, travel advice, tips and tricks, special deals.

Ok, most of that stuff is already freely available all over the internet on sites like Expedia, Google Video and YouTube.

There is some potential here, and this is an increasingly common direction for social networks to move in, but it will be a difficult strategy to pull off and not upset long time users of Live Journal, especially the paid users.

The other kicker is paid users of Live Journal are going to see the sponsorship information which will be unobtrusive according to Six Apart on pages about sponsored features.

They claim that they don’t consider this to be advertising. Blah! I disagree. Hey Live Journal friends, how do you feel abou this?

I’m glad that I can run my site advertisment free. Nothing but content here baby!

Microsoft Ices Windows XP SP1

Originally posted on October 12, 2006 @ 10:18 am

As of October 11, 2006, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP SP1 and SP1a with security updates, although the day before it issued patches for multiple vulnerabilities affecting the operating system, 2 of which were judged “critical.”

Under Microsoft’s current lifecycle policy, it promises to support Service Packs with security updates for 12-24 months after the release of a succeeding Service Pack. Windows XP as a whole will age out of support only after two years have passed from the time Windows Vista is officially released.

Windows XP SP2, the free-of-charge update first issued in 2004, can be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site.

Walmart.com Relaunches

Originally posted on October 26, 2006 @ 9:03 am

So it seems the world’s largest retail store has relaunched Walmart.com after a 13-month overhaul with Open Source features.

Some of the new features on the site are built on open source OpenLazlo and Flash. I’m happy to find out that more and more companies are turning to open source applications but I’m not a huge fan of flash.

After spending some time looking over the new Walmart.com site, I’ve noticed some interesting interactive functions all over the place.

According to Debbie Kristofferson, Brisbane, California based Walmart.com vice president of user experience said:

The toy section aims to entertain kids, as well as help adults find detail product information and reviews to make the correct buying decisions.

It’s interesting to me that Wal-Mart has done so many things internet wise the past few months. All sorts of features and projects coming in and going like dust in the wind.

Notably missing from walmart.com is the HUB, Wal-Mart’s experiment in social networking that launched earlier this year to promote back-to-school season fashions for kids. The site was up for about six to eight weeks. Yeah, it sucked.

According to Raul Vazquez, walmart.com chief marketing officer:

The website changes are the first major revamp since walmart.com’s return to e-commerce in 2000, just in time for the holiday season where an estimated 300 million visitors will log onto the site during the next few months to search on the goods.

I personally don’t shop at WalMart.com or in the actual store that often, however around the holiday’s they do stay open 24 hours, which rocks if you need something at 2:00 am like World of Warcraft :)

USB Rechargable Batteries

Originally posted on September 21, 2006 @ 4:53 pm

USB AA BatteriesThis revolutionary rechargeable battery can charge from any USB port without the need for any recharging devices, cradles or cables.

Simply pop the lid to reveal a built in connector and charger, plug into any powered USB port on your desktop, laptop, keyboard or games console, to charge the battery.

Until now the battery industry, although reaching record levels of sales, has failed to keep pace with the exciting developments and device portability in the rest of the consumer electronics industry. No longer – USBCELL brings truly portable power for devices.

USBCELL can be used exactly like a normal battery meaning there is now no need to purchase huge packs of alkaline batteries, or invest in or carry a clunky charger.

Billions of USB ports are readily available in homes and workplaces around the world meaning you never need to run out of power and making the USBCELL extremely cost-effective and convenient for all battery-powered devices.

This has to be one of the coolest creations to come around in a while… rechargable batteries that have a USB connector for charging.

Microsoft Security Updates For October

Originally posted on October 10, 2006 @ 8:35 am

Microsoft is planning to release the following security updates today:

  • Six Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. Some of these updates will require a restart.
  • Four Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.
  • One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft .NET Framework. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Moderate. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. These updates may require a restart.

As always, keep in mind that Microsoft doesn’t anticipate any changes to the above list but the number of bulletins, products affected, restart information and severities are subject to change until officially released today.