31/07/2007 by swordfish.

The computer POST (Power On Self Test) tests a computer, to make sure that it meets the necessary system requirements before booting up. If the POST fails, beep codes are often produced that point to the nature of the POST error.

As many visitors to QBS PC Help are searching for help with these BIOS Beep Codes we have now put together a new site page of these codes and their meanings, split by BIOS manufacturer.

To view this new page please click here

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31/07/2007 by swordfish.

As people flocked to the iPlayer section of the BBC website last Friday – the soft launch of the iPlayer beta – to register and download the client, most were surprised and disappointed to find that Auntie has not opened the iPlayer to a full public beta trial as had been implied. It’s still a closed trial; you just have the opportunity to register interest, which is more than you could do previously.

To be fair, the BBC didn’t specifically say it would be a free-for-all, but it didn’t do anything to correct speculation and rumour that come last Friday, licence fee payers across the land would be able to download BBC shows.

Source IT PRO

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30/07/2007 by swordfish.

The BBC’s online, on-demand TV iPlayer was released for public download on Friday following its launch a month ago.

The beta version of the service is available for Windows XP users, less than three months after the service received the green light from the corporation’s independent governing body, the BBC Trust.

The BBC is requesting feedback from early iPlayer users to iron out any issues before a bigger marketing push is made in the autumn.

The fact the iPlayer is only available for Windows XP has caused some controversy, with non-Windows users feeling they have been excluded.

The beta version of the service can be downloaded by going to the iPlayer website.

Source: zdnet

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27/07/2007 by swordfish.

As promised in an earlier post we have now released our latest help guide - How to Upgrade a Graphics Card.

To view this article please click here

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27/07/2007 by swordfish.

Staffordshire County Council has developed software that detects and turns off idle PCs and could cut £40,000 per year off the authority’s energy bill. The software will scan all of the council’s 8,000 computers and automatically switch off any left on outside office hours.

Peter Kear, who developed the computer program and is team leader for Staffordshire ICT Desktop Support, said this software differs from other power-saving tools because the PC is actually turned off, and not left in hibernation mode.

The software was written as part of a wider project to improve the council’s patch-management processes and should be installed throughout the county by September. Kear said the machines needed to shut down every day, not just go into hibernation, as part of the patch-installation process. The energy-saving software evolved from this requirement.

An automated email service that informs employees when their machines have had to be switched off by the software has also been developed and should be added to the system soon.

Kear said the council wants to educate people to switch off their machines and not have them rely on the software to do it instead. By encouraging people to turn off their PCs, they are also more likely to switch off their other hardware, such as monitors, which the current system cannot shut down, he added.

Source: zdnet

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26/07/2007 by swordfish.

Pirated software worth $500m (£250m) has been seized as the FBI shuts down a world-spanning piracy outfit.

Before the raids the Chinese counterfeiting syndicate was thought to have sold and distributed software worth more than $2bn. Despite recent crackdowns, industry figures suggest that 82% of the software used in China is counterfeit.

The FBI and China’s Public Security Bureau arrested 25 people during the two-week operation against the pirates. The FBI said it had been building up a case against the piracy syndicate for years before staging the raids on the software production plants in China’s Guangdong province. During the raids, dubbed Operation Summer Solstice, the FBI seized more than 290,000 CDs with a claimed market value of $500m.

The gang was known to be producing pirated versions of 13 of Microsoft’s most popular programs including Windows Vista, XP and Server as well as Office 2003 and 2007.

Source: BBC Technology News

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