Astaro Version 7

From the Astaro Blog:

Astaro will continue to support the release V7 of ASG, AMG and AWG for 18 months after that date, until it’s End-of-Life on December 31st, 2012. Support includes bug and security fixes (System Up2Dates) and Pattern Up2Dates and technical support (via web form and phone).

If a customer decides to renew for longer than a year now, we should plan on upgrading them to V8.  The process takes approximately 1 hr, if everything goes smoothly.

1. Clone existing Astaro to new hard-drive.

2. Load version 8.

3. Restore config file.

Microsoft Word Tip: Drawing borders automatically

Word offers a sometimes-handy option that lets you insert a border automatically. Type three hyphens on a blank line and press [Enter]. If the option is enabled, Word will replace the hyphens with a horizontal line. You can get rid of it if you press [Ctrl]Z after Word inserts it (see above). But if you try to select the border and delete it, you're out of luck. You're not dealing with a line object here. Word has applied the Bottom Border format to the paragraph.

To remove that format in Word 2003, click in the paragraph and choose No Border from the Borders drop-down list on the Formatting menu. In Word 2007/2010, click in the paragraph and then click the Border button in the Paragraph group of the Home tab. Just select No Border from the drop-down list.

HP Announces HP TouchPad Availability for United States, Europe and Canada

Product Announcement: June 9

The HP TouchPad should be available Starting tomorrow July 1. It will be coming to mixed reviews with some touting it’s great multi-tasking capabilities and support for Flash as among its biggest assets. It will be available in 16GB and 32GB version for $499.99 and $599.99 respectively. However, without the add-on support from App developers I question whether this product is or will be a good buy. HP announced that it will be partnering with AT&T to introduce a connected version of HP TouchPad later this summer.

Optional accessories for HP TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad Wireless Keyboard and the HP TouchPad Case (sold separately). Speaking of accessories, that is another thing that we may not see for a long time for this product. Third Party manufacturers will probably wait to see how many of the these units actually make it into consumer’s hands before ramping up to product compatible add-on products.

It will be interesting to see in the next few months what happens but I don’t think HP’s Name is enough to cause the industry to jump on board as quickly as you would see an Apple product gain support.

More information about HP TouchPad, including product features and specs, is available at www.hpwebos.com/us/products/pads/touchpad.

A $300,000 Reason Why Secure Banking Is Now a “Business” Responsibility Too

AVG posted a blog entry on 6/10/2011 detailing a situation where a US District Court Judge in the state of Maine has ruled this week that Ocean Bank is not liable for $300,000 stolen by hackers from Patco Construction Company’s online banking profile.

In May 2009 hackers siphoned around US$100,000 per day from Patco’s online bank account. The hackers had previously sent an email to employees carrying a Zeus password-stealing Trojan, which was successfully installed on an employee computer.

The judge ruled that the bank’s security was on the level of other bank’s security. The judge ruled that the bank made it clear to customers when they signed up for an account and the amount of liability the bank would shoulder. He ruled that Patco itself was ultimately responsible for the loss because it hadn’t better secured its credential.

This is increasing scary when we read reports that show that less than half are aware of the real and tangible threats posed by Internet based attacks, and that one in seven small businesses have no security software (this number rising to 1 of 4 in businesses that are single employee).

Given this week’s events in the US, it should be clearer than ever than business-level IT security issues necessitate a precision engineered business-grade IT security software suite. Now is the time to act. So we must learn from the Patco Construction case and not become an easy target for the hackers; your business can take steps to avoid malicious IT attacks, so please afford it the respect it deserves.

A good starting point is AVG’s Free Online Security Audit.