I had a new install of Windows 7 Pro x86_64 on my Mac using Boot Camp. I was frustrated when after a fresh install and a single software install, I was getting errors trying to update Windows using Windows Update. When running the tool, I would get:

Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer.

Of course the Windows Update service was running, restarting both the service and computer did not help. What did, was turning off the service and removing all the files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution, then restarting the service. It appears that either the software install or an attempt to check for updates had corrupted the update files.

This is a really interesting discussion on Twitter, its use of Ruby for its message queue system, and their move to Scala for their new backend. The original piece makes a lot of assumptions IMO, and by looking at the comments seems to be wrong in a lot of them. And that is why the post is interesting. A few Twitter developers stop in to make some comments. Make sure you read them all.

eEye has a great little tool (and its free) that will scan your network for computers vulnerable and infected with Conficker (variant C). Only issue with the scanner, is it does not seem to work on Vista (either as the host or to check for vulnerability).

If you use Gmail for your email needs, you may want to backup your data. If your like me, you have a lot of information saved on Google servers, and I would be in a hard place should they ever vanish. If you are not concerned about this possibility, however remote, you should still consider backing up your data.

A very good solution is Gmail Backup. The application locally backups your emails in individual .eml files, sorted in folders based on month and year. You specify the backup date range, and the rest is simple. You need to enable IMAP support in your GMail settings, and that’s it.

Good stuff.

One of my Windows machines needs to open EPS files, and I do not want to install Photoshop or a vector program on the computer. In trying to use GIMP to open EPS files, you may run into an issue.

I got the following error:

Error starting Ghostscript. Make sure that Ghostscript is installed and – if necessary – use the environment variable GS_PROG to tell GIMP about its location.
(Failed to execute child process (No such file or directory))

Could not interpret ‘x.eps’

GIMP requires Ghostscript to import the EPS. Even with Ghostscript installed, GIMP may not know where to look. After installing Ghostscript, and GIMP, do the following:
Vista

• Right click on My Computer
• Go to Properties
• Advanced System Settings (left side)
• Advanced Tab
• Environment Variables (near bottom)
• Under System Variables, click New.
• Variable Name is GS_PROG
• Variable Value is the path to Ghostscript. Example (C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.63\bin\gswin32.exe)
• Click OK. Restart GIMP.

XP

• Right click on My Computer
• Click on Properties
• go to Advanced tab
• Environment Variables (near bottom)
• Under System Variables, click New.
• Variable Name is GS_PROG
• Variable Value is the path to Ghostscript. Example (C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.63\bin\gswin32.exe)
• Click OK. Restart GIMP.

A true geek loves their data and stats. With this in mind I set out a while back to display more of the information about my computer that I like to see. Enter Samurize…

This is a great desktop info program for Windows, that allows for tons of info to be displayed, along with plugins for things such as music controls, mini web browsers, etc.

My current config is all data oriented, as the mini-browser I had with my RTM task list was too distracting for me.

So OOo 3.0 was officially released today. Yet the website is straining under the load…

I guess this is a good thing, seeing as a lot of users want the new application. Hopefully the OOo web team can get things running smoothly again.

So it appears that OpenOffice has released the stable 3.0 to its mirrors. Although the announcement isnt official yet, and the download link on the main page still goes to 2.4.1. I hear it will go official on Monday, yet go to a mirror and grab it early.

Release Candidate 1 for OpenOffice 3.0 was just released. Being that this is a RC and not a Beta, I am using it on one of my machines. While I am not going to cover all the new features of 3.0, I figured I would briefly cover some of the changes.

Start Screen
OO3 adds a new start window when launched. (image)

Nothing new here, just visual for the most part.

Toolbar Icons
The toolbar is getting a new face lift. (image) You can compare that to version 2. (image)

Again, just aesthetics.

Office 2007 Import
OO3 now has import filters for MS Office 2007 files. All those pesky files that end in X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). I hear the import is no where near perfect in regards to formatting, but at least OO users can see the contents from those users who send formats without thinking of who can open them.

I tested a Resume that was created in Word 2007. The formatting after import was horrible. (image)

Hopefully the import feature, a work in progress, gets cleaned up as time goes on or before release.

Spreadsheet Sharing
A new feature is the ability to share spreadsheets. To use this feature, each person would need OO3, as when the spreadsheet is opened in OO2.4 it informs you that you need a newer version.

To share a document, you go to Tools>Share Document. From there you can see who accessed the document and toggle the share check box. (image)

I was going to write more about the exciting new feature, yet I do not share documents often. So I will let other more knowledgeable people talk about this, and its intricacies. Yet basically the idea is you are informed of changes others make to the content you are working on (image).

Notes in Writer
The new notes in Writer, are very cool. Much easier to read and use. (image)

To download OO3 RC1, go here.

I was having some issues installing updates through Windows Update on one of my XP machines (Windows XP SP3). Everytime I would try to update, I would go to Custom. I would get a list of updates applicable. When I would try to install, the updates would download and then fail from there.

Problem: A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded or installed. Solution: To fix the problem, try installing the updates again. If that doesn’t work, use the Troubleshooter to try solve the problem.

Luckily I found this helpful resource. In case the page goes down, I am copying what helped me fix the issue.

To fix the first issue, clear the cache and cookies of the browser you are using.

After clearing the cache and cookies, try running Windows Update again.

To fix the .dll issue, you will need to re-register a couple of .dll files. To do this, follow these easy steps:

1. Run the command prompt by clicking on the Start Menu and selecting Run. Type “cmd” and hit Enter.
2. In the new window that came up, type each of the following commands, hitting enter after each one:

• REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
• REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
• REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL

Windows update should now behave normally.

I registered the DLL’s and it worked for me. You can also look at this site from MS, that appears to also have a registering of a DLL, with a lot of other methods.