Prior to last week’s iPhone 3.0 upgrade, I listened to about four hours of podcasts a week; now I listen to twice as many thanks to the x2 playback option. Although playback is twice as fast, the pitch is unchanged so it doesn’t sound like chimpmunks. I now consume more podcasts than I watch TV or play video games per week.
On Tuesday, 22 Jun 2009, Microsoft released a beta version of its upcoming free anti-virus product, code named Morro. When I checked the site this morning (24 Jun 2009), the download link had been removed and the following Alert was posted:
Thank you for your interest in joining the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. We are not accepting additional participants at this time. Please check back at later a date for possible additional availability.
Too bad. My main desire was to test the AV client out on some virtual machines that are running server OSes like 2003 and 2008, which I later learned aren’t supported by Microsoft Security Essentials yet anyway.
If MSE is effective and remains free, I will be likely to discontinue buying third-party anti-virus clients from Symantec, MacAfee, and the like.
Last month Jenny and I had some fun with our wedding photographer downtown. Here’s some of the better shots. We think he’ll do a good job in covering our wedding.
She really makes me look good, doesn’t she?
I purchased a Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall FVS336G in December 2008. I was mostly interested in its dual-WAN and SSL VPN capabilities. In regards to the SSL VPN feature, I remain disappointed and do not recommend purchasing a FVS336G.
The dual-WAN feature works okay for a small business. Basically when WAN1 fails (which requires at least two minutes of no Internet), WAN2 kicks in. Aside from suffering a two-minute outage, this works.
The SSL VPN feature, however, has never worked. In six months, I’ve made 20 support phone calls and have waited for and installed three separate firmware updates (currently using version 3.0.5-24). Still, I’m unable to establish an SSL VPN connection that doesn’t involve lowering browser security settings, accepting invalid certificates, or even rolling the date on a computer back to 2008.
Netgear’s biggest and most recent folly was that it failed to renew the SSL Certificate they use to sign both the Java and ActiveX clients that are temporarily installed when establishing an SSL VPN session — shown here:
Their certificate expired on 05/08/09. Without a working certificate, browsers rightfully balk at the thought of installing software from an untrusted and unauthenticated source.
I’m sure it was just an oversight, but it’s another thorn in my side. I’ve put forth a lot of effort getting a working SSL VPN connection with this device that is easy for people to use. So far, SSL VPN remains a feature that is marketed for the product but not delivered.
In short, avoid purchasing a Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall FVS336G if you expect to use their SSL VPN features.
Yesterday, Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 R2 RC. Features that excite me include Hyper-V’s ability to do live migrations, Server Manager’s new ability to connect to remote servers, and improvements in Backups — now able to do more than just entire volumes.
What really restored my interest in this R2 RC was this video of Ward Ralston, the guy who is the group product manager for Windows Server. This guy is cool, and appears to really love what he does.