Windows XP reaches its sell-by date in a few days (with the exception of XP Home "either June 30, 2010, or one year after the general availability of the next version of Windows"). lifecycle/default.mspx

Mainstream support ends 4/14/2009. That's only 10 months full support left ! Extended support ends 4/8/2014. Which is security fixes only, no new versions of browsers, media players or support for newer products (eg though, doubtful, next version of office might not support XP due to using a Vista only feature that will not get backported to XP).

Even with XP SP3 only recently been released, Microsoft clearly states: "When support for a product ends, support of the service packs for that product will also end." support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh%3Ben-us%3Blifecycle&LN=EN-US&x=20&y=10#Service%20Pack%20Support

Will XP's extended support be enough for those who want to continue using XP ?

Will people who intially dismissed Vista, consider upgrading to Vista in the near future ?

Or will people who do not want to or cannot (eg people with ultra portable and sub notebooks) use Vista yet, hold out with XP until the next version of Windows is out in 2010 ?

Or will people start migrating away from Vista to Mac or Linux ?

I have always been a fan of Linux, and if I wanted to move to Linux 100% tomorrow (I am currently happy with XP though). I have 3 personal machines that do not meet the specification to run Vista and have no need to upgrade them to anything faster, so upgrading to Vista is not an option. So I still need to decide to keep XP until Windows 7 comes out or move at-least partially to Linux.

Computerworld has some insight into this topic, http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9070119

Windows XP was massively popular, Vista is in the Shadows, but IMHO will provide a good stepping stone towards Windows 7, which will be more popular that Vista, which Windows 7 will build upon (and be 100% compatible with).

Windows XP has been a very popular OS, it managed to successfully build on the rock solid Windows 2000 and replace the lack-lustre Windows ME in one fell swoop. XP SP2 offered a significant improvements to further improve the reputation and popularity of Windows XP. Read Features_new_to_Windows_XP - Wikipedia, to find out more about about what was new in XP.

Windows XP managed a reign of approximately 5 years before Vista was finally released.

Vista has not met expectations on many levels, slipped release dates, number of features dropped, poor release reception, manufacturers complaints about lack of support to get drivers ready for launch, then compounded by other bad press Microsoft has had around and since Vista launch. Read Windows Vista - Wikipedia for more information about Vista.

Its not all doom and gloom for Microsoft though, XP is still their old faithful, by the time Windows 7 is launched, Vista will have matured and as Windows 7 will be 100% Vista compatible people will have far less fears about upgrading. They have the foundations laid with Vista already, being able to spend time on optimising, GUI etc should make for the OS Vista should of been.

Microsoft has learnt from its past mistakes about releasing information about planned features and is being far more tight lipped, which should help to minimise the negative publicity that occurred during the development and release of Vista. Windows 7 the story so far and Windows 7 - Wikipedia both have more details about Windows 7.

My arm is feeling a lot better and am back to blogging.

I have been working on an updated version of my gallery code for YACS, I had hoped to get it complete in time for integration for the next big release - YACS 8.6 Macnana, but progress was slow and I missed the deadline. For now I will be concentrating on supporting the website, I shall be moderating the next English chat session on the 19th June and spend some time with documentation. Next week I shall be spending some time testing and helping to bug fix YACS 8.6 Macnana. One test will be to setup a dedicated blog on www.moneytrafficblog.net and serve as a great way to kickstart the www.moneytrafficblog.net project.

This week I will finish putting together my Windows defragmentation tool review and also posting some comments on why I think Windows 7 will be a massive success.

I thought I would share a photo of myself with my broken arm and my little daughter Scarlett, 5 months old. In a week my pot is coming off and I am hoping for some better sleep and be able to type more comfortably.

Me and Scarlett

Emule 0.49a was released on the May 11th 2008.

The new features of eMule 0.49a include Kad improvements ( obfuscation, better NAT, flood protection), changes to the messaging system (Captchas), GUI improvements (ability to save searches, search filtering of shared files) and the usual bug fixes and tweaks.

You can download Emule from the official Emule site. Download Emule 0.49a

I managed to fall off my motorbike and break my arm, a week ago.

I have broken my inner radius on my left arm right at the end near my wrist (top part broken off) and also a fracture underneath. Luckily my pot is holding the bone together so I wont need pins.

I hope to get back to posting in my blog soon.

I have decided to update my domain to www.NGRhodes.co.uk . My motivation for doing this was simply picking something that is more memorable, rolls off the tongue easier, but at the same time not too dissimilar to my previous domain name.

I had a quick look for .htaccess rules and found one simple easy way to redirect any domain and redirect the canonical non-www to www.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

(from redirect www and no www)

This rule simply redirects anything that is NOT my desired domain name to my domain name.

Good news at last.

" The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a major revision to its statement on Phorm, insisting that the ad tracking system must be deployed on an opt-in basis to comply with the law. "

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/ico_phorm_tougher/

Statement by the IOC:

" Even if Phorm is not processing personal data, the ISP undertaking the profiling may be to the extent that it uses IP addresses in that profiling and is able to link its customers to an IP address although this may not be its intention.

To the extent that personal data is processed that processing must be fair and lawful in order to comply with the First Principle of the DPA.

Regulation 7 of PECR will require the ISP to get the consent of users to the use of their traffic data for any value added services. This strongly supports the view that Phorm products will have to operate on an opt in basis to use traffic data as part of the process of returning relevant targeted marketing to internet users. "