- Opera 10 Web Browser now available in alpha
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Posted by oVan on Monday, December 08, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Opera Software lets us have a sneak peek at Opera 10! You can now download an alpha version of Opera 10 at http://www.opera.com/browser/next/. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s new:
- Presto 2.2 Engine
- Performance boost
- 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
- Auto-update
- Inline spelling checker
- Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
Here’s some more detail on the improvements and new features:
Opera 10 contains Opera's new rendering engine, Opera Presto 2.2, which will be integrated with all future Opera 10 products. This rendering engine gives us up to 30 percent faster browsing experience (compared to Opera Presto 2.1 from Opera 9.5).
For web developers: support for standards has improved also, resulting in a 100/100 score on the famous Acid3 test. There are also improved tools for web developers: you can use Web Fonts, including SVG font files, making great typography possible for designing web sites. Now it is also easier to make page elements transparent, by using a transparency channel added to RGB and HSL (so: RGBA and HSLA). Finally, Opera Dragonfly has improved website debugging, editing the DOM and inspecting the HTTP Headers.
There are some more improvements for the users too: spellchecker while you’re typing, auto update to the latest versions as they become available, and Opera Mail now supports HTML formatted e-mails.
“My favorite development in this release is the support for new Web technologies, which allows people to explore new ways of using the Internet," says Johan Borg, Vice President of Consumer Engineering, Opera Software. "Our 100/100 Acid3 Test score is only a first indication of the impact these new Web technologies will have. We look forward to your feedback on Opera 10.”
Find out more and download Opera 10 free: http://www.opera.com/browser/next/.
Labels: alpha, browser, download, free, Opera, semantic, standards, SVG
- Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta
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Posted by oVan on Saturday, December 06, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft has released standalone versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta in this knowledge base article: KB948465.Download SP2 Beta
SP2 Beta Standalone updates for computers with one or more of the following five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. If your computer has any other language installed this option will not work.
- Windows Update installation of SP2 for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
- Five Language SP2 Standalone:
- ISO for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
- x86 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x86
- x64 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x64
- IA64 for Windows Server 2008 ia64
TechNet Plus SubscribersDownload integrated images, containing the full OS product and SP2 in a single image for clean install or upgrade scenarios
- Install the SP2 Standalone package using the links in Non-Subscribers section
Some more information on these releases:
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is prerelease code offered to the public through our Customer Preview Program. Please see the Windows Server SP2/Windows Vista SP2 Customer Preview Program page on TechNet/MSDN for additional details, documentation, and forums.
Windows Vista SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta apply to people, organizations, and technical enthusiasts who are comfortable evaluating prerelease software. This prerelease software is provided for testing only. Installation of Service Pack 2 Beta will result in Microsoft collecting information about the installation process, even if the installation is not completed. We do not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems. We recommend that you have a backup of your data before you install any prerelease software.
SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new kinds of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Server 2008.
Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta - Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.
Support for Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista SP2 Beta can be received by visiting the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 TechNet forum.Labels: download, Microsoft, Server 2008, Service, SP1, SP2, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista
- TCP Ports required for ActiveSync & WMDC
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
To get a working ActiveSync (or Windows Mobile Device Center on Vista) connection, you need to open some ports in your firewall. Some firewalls like Eset SmartSecurity have auto-discovery mode or interactive mode, but that doesn’t always work out okay.
The easiest and most reliable way is to open these TCP ports manually in your firewall:
- 990 (RAPI)
- 999 (Status)
- 5721 (DTPT)
- 5678 (Legacy Replication)
- 5679 (Handshake & Legacy Replication)
- 26675 (Airsync)
Source: TreoProTricks
Labels: ActiveSync, firewall, ports, TCP, Vista, Windows Mobile, WMDC, XP
- ATI Catalyst Install Manager has stopped working
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 | PermaLink | 3 comments
This problem has bugged me for a while: when installing AMD/ATI Catalyst drivers (version 7.8, 7.9, 7.10 and who knows the new 7.11), everything goes fine until you click the Install or Uninstall button:
You are then greeted with the message Catalyst Install Manager has stopped working. Apparently this has something to do with the VS2005 C++ redistributables, but that shouldn’t be our problem.
The fix is quite easy:
- open a CMD-box with administrative privileges
- go to your ATI drivers, probably in a location similar to this one:
C:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-10_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_emu_69564\ - then go to the BIN (or BIN64 for Vista64) folder underneath
- type this command:
atisetup.exe -Install -Output screen
If all goes well the drivers will then install successfully. Do not forget to reboot your machine after installation!
Good luck!Labels: AMD, ATI, Catalyst, crash, driver, drivers, fix, install, installation, installer, solution, Windows, Windows Vista, XP
- IE Tester - Test your sites against IE8, IE7, IE6, and IE5.5
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
IETester is a free tool to test your websites against all major versions of Internet Explorer. It has the rendering and javascript engines of IE8 beta 2, IE7, IE6 and IE5.5 on Vista and XP.
Download: IETester v0.2.3 (24Mb)
Labels: browser, CSS, developer, IE, IE6, IE7, IE8, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista, XP
