Posted December 23, 2008 by Nora
Thought I’d take a moment to note that VHS is officially dead.
The L.A. Times has a eulogy here.
Watch out, DVDs. You’re next…
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Posted December 18, 2008 by Nora
Every now and then we decide to try out some of the free plugins for Media Center. Today it’s the MyNetflix plugin from Anthony Park.
MyNetflix lets you access your Netflix queue through Media Center. You can
- View your Netflix queue
- Browse movies by genre, top 100, new titles, etc.
- View your history and recommendations
- Add movies to your queue
- Remove movies from your queue
- Move movies to the top of your queue
- Browse “watch now” movies
- Play “watch now” movies
Note that you cannot play “watch now” movies from an Xbox using this plugin–Microsoft has teamed up with Netflix to make this happen, though, so if that’s your interest, check this out.
FYI: “Watch Now” movies from Netflix require that you have Microsoft Silverlight installed on your computer. If you don’t already have it installed, it will ask you to install the first time you start a movie on your computer.
OK, so along to the installation:
Download and installation of the plugin went smoothly. As part of the installation, you must enter your Netflix login and password so that Media Center can access your queue.
Enter your information. You can hit the “Test” button if you want to verify that the plugin connects correctly. This finished the installation.
I immediately found MyNetflix in the program library under “programs by name.”
I had no problem viewing my Netflix queue, and even started a “watch now” movie (Spider Baby, a weird little cult horror movie starring Lon Chaney, Jr., for anyone who’s interested).
Verdict? Works perfectly! If you’d like to manage your Netflix queue and watch Netflix movies through Media Center, download it now! It’s free, but you could certainly toss the developer a little appreciation through PayPal.
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Posted December 17, 2008 by Nora
Most should already know about this, but from the AP…
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft Corp. is taking the unusual step of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers.
The “zero-day” vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows criminals to take over victims’ machines simply by steering them to infected Web sites; users don’t have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer’s programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world’s most widely used Web browser.
Microsoft said it plans to ship a security update, rated “critical,” for the browser on Wednesday. People with the Windows Update feature activated on their computers will get the patch automatically.
Thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw. The bad guys have loaded malicious code onto those sites that automatically infect visitors’ machines if they’re using Internet Explorer and haven’t employed a complicated series of workarounds that Microsoft has suggested.
Microsoft said it has seen attacks targeting the flaw only in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but has cautioned that all other current editions of the browser are vulnerable.
Microsoft rarely issues security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly updates. The company last did it in October, and a year and half before that.
Make sure that if you use Internet Explorer, you get your updates installed!
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Posted December 4, 2008 by Seth
It’s an exciting time for the Life|ware family of websites! Our sites are undergoing a reorganization to make them more useful to you, whether you’re a dealer, partner or customer. In addition to providing clearer paths to information, we’re also updating the sites to be more visually engaging, with advanced video and interactive features.
This engagement, however, comes at a price. With the launch of the new websites, we are discontinuing support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. With IE7 in widespread adoption and its successor, IE8, close to public release, we feel that it’s an appropriate time to close this chapter of our Web history. The improved content we’re providing demands standards-compliant browsers, and IE6 just doesn’t fit the bill. For more information on Web standards compliance, visit the W3C.
If Internet Explorer isn’t your browser of choice, that’s great. We’re also supporting other standards-compliant browsers. These include Mozilla Firefox (Windows/OS X), Safari (Windows/OS X), Opera (Windows/OS X) and Google Chrome (Windows).
This launch is scheduled to take place in phases, with Phase 1 in Q1 2009 and Phase 2 sometime around Q3 2009. Watch this blog for more information as those dates approach.
Until next time…thanks for stopping by. You stay classy, Life|line reader.
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