Longhorn Name Released

Recently Microsoft's next mainstream operating system, codenamed Longhorn, was officially named. The name, like anything else new, has sparked controversy all over the internet. In on poll of 300 users 15% said they liked the new name, 45% would eventually get used to it while 40% couldn't stand it.

The name released last Thursday was Windows Vista. While it's quite a different name from the last few releases (95, 98, ME, XP) Microsoft are obviously trying to become more modern with their approach. Vista, I imagine, will become quick of the tongue and synonymous with computer in the years to come, so we might as well all get used to it.

Microsoft's marketing approach for Windows Vista, which mainly focused on a clean and clear perspective on managing your digital life, has already taken off with a bang. The video available on the Microsoft.com website shows they are not short of money for advertising and have created some spectacular work in doing so.

For more information on Windows Vista I recommend googling it.

HTTP Bypass Service

Recently me and a couple of mates decided we'd set up a bypassing service where you can use it to get past internet restrictions at work, school or just to browse the web anonymously. An example of what we hope to achieve is ProjectBypass.com which is fast, supports bypassing http and ftp, and allows downloads.

We'll be using an already prepared CGI script which is made available free for non-commercial use and hope to set it all up at minimal cost on our own home-made servers using the no-ip dynamic dns service and Apache web server.

To fund the costs of running we will install Google Adsense ads on the site, and hopefully provide some good content and interesting articles to promote traffic to our site.

This whole scheme should take about 2 weeks to setup and ongoing time to maintain the servers and the web site. If anyone out there is interested in helping to create and maintain the website, in testing or just helping promote it, we enthusiastically welcome your support. Just email me at smith88@gmail.com and we can discuss this further.

For all the users out there, the address will be comivo.sytes.net. I'll post a new message telling you when it's ready to visit.

Open Office 2 nearly Open

For those Open Source Technology lovers out there you'll be pleased to know OpenOffice.org is in beta stages of version 2 of its software. As always you can go and download the beta version right away from their site, but I recommend waiting till the public release is made available. This next version contains a redefined theming engine whereby OpenOffice takes the look (style / theme) of the operating system it is working under, giving a more comfortable feel to the end user. Along with other bug fixes and new features, Open Office 2 looks promising. Just head over to their site to see the new features!