Paris Hilton gives Facebook the better vista
By Martin J Young

HUA HIN, Thailand - Following the public release of Microsoft's weighty Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista last week there have been the usual teething problems with the installation and deployment of the software patch. The service pack contains a massive 573 bug and security fixes that have accumulated since the operating systems launch in early 2007.

Information technology analysts and tech websites are advising users to hold off installing SP1 until all of the wrinkles (and there are quite a few) have been ironed out. Many of the problems experienced are a remnant of those that people had during the deployment of SP2 for Windows XP - it seems that there is simply too much to fix.

A number of compatibility issues with other software tops the list of woes as many third-party programs simply won't function after the installation of the service pack. People have reported issues with products from Zonelabs and Novell to name a couple; additionally third-party drivers (or lack of them) cause a few problems with hardware that Vista doesn't like.

Patching operating systems has always been a precarious business if you expect the computer to run flawlessly afterwards. Many IT professionals advise waiting for a while (often a long while) before upgrading or patching with major releases. This article has been written on an XP machine as upgrading an editorial office to Vista is a Herculean task and one that would run about as smoothly as the surface of the moon, going on past experiences.

There is simply too much that can go wrong; no two computers that have had daily use for a couple of years will be the same so there are bound to be different compatibility issues with each one. That said, you should ensure that vital security systems are kept up to date and a good firewall is in place to keep the nasties out.

Since the hype of the week on the tech blogosphere has been SP1 for Vista there has also been talk of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. A refreshed version of Release Candidate 2 (RC2) has been deployed this week, which brings the final public release dates closer to the present although Microsoft still hasn't specified them and states that it will be in the first half of this year.

It will be the last service pack for the diehard operating system as users cling onto it to avoid the upgrade to the problematic Vista, which is likely to bring any computer older than 18 months to a grinding halt. SP3 will contain the usual consignment of security patches and hot fixes along with a couple of additional security features. It looks like everyone will soon be busy patching, unless of course you're still happy with Windows 2000 and SP4!

Internet
The social networking craze got another boost this week when Yahoo endorsed a program developed by rival Google to standardize web application development. OpenSocial was launched last November to encourage developers to work together creating applications for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The ever-increasing group of supporters of the program will help to build the largest community of web developers for social networks. Google has announced that the project will become a completely non-profit organization to be fully authorized by July 1. Over 15 large corporations have joined the project so far, although Microsoft continues to remain aloof and develop its own standards.

Facebook has also been in the news this week as a security flaw allowed unauthorized access to private photo albums stored on the social networking portal. The website has recently upgraded a slew of security systems and options for users to keep their personal data private.

A Canadian computer technician searching for security weaknesses to test the system discovered the breach that enabled him to access private photos. Under any normal circumstances this would have been a regular geek story that would hardly get a read - in this case, however, some of the photos he pulled up were of US socialite Paris Hilton.

Once the story broke, the web was inundated with hormone heaving guys trying to get a glimpse of the starlet. The Associated Press even conducted some tests of its own, though selecting an album by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg instead. A spokesman for the social networking site stated that the security flaw was fixed immediately and that privacy is taken very seriously with continued enhancements made to the site.

Hardware
The battle for processor supremacy continued this week as AMD rolled out a tri-core raid on rival Intel. The new CPUs will be aimed at the mainstream desktop PC market and be in direct competition with Intel’s dual-core chips. The company has claimed that their new three-core processors boost performance by up to 30% compared with dual-core processors running at the same frequency. The Phenom X3 family will offer a 2.1GHz 8400 version and a 2.3GHz 8600 model - the race for clock speed is over and performance is now based upon multi-core technology. The new processors will be especially suited to multimedia applications, high definition video editing and playback and gaming. Following a difficult 2007, AMD appears to be back on track this year and taking the digital bull by the horns.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.