You may have seen pictures around the web of Hello Kitty wearing a blue Windows Home Server shirt.
Well if you haven’t, just take a look.
As I understand it there were only a small number of these WHS Hello Kitty’s and they were specifically for the Japanese market.
And thanks to my fellow WHS MVP and new friend from Japan, Yoshihiro Okabe, I now I have one. And yes, I will admit it, she is very cool and I am keeping her.
Recently I put out the call for new writers, asking anyone who might be interested in writing to contact me. Well, I have had a response and we have our first new writer.
His name is Tim Daleo and expect to see some posts from him shortly.
Welcome on board Tim!
If there is anyone else out there who might be interested in writing for the site, whether it is on Windows Home Server, Media Center, well whatever you want really, either leave a comment or email me at andrew @ usingwhs.com (remembering to remove the spaces!).
There must be people out there who would be interested – so don’t be shy, get in touch.
Well it is that time of the year again when a large number of Microsoft MVPs descend on Seattle for the annual MVP Summit.
As well as getting together with our fellow MVP’s, we all also get to spend a few days with the product team that our MVP award is in, so in my case its the Windows Home Server team.
A lot of what we discuss is under NDA for now, but not everything, so I expect to be able to post something over the next few days!
Also, if you have any questions or anything you would like raised with the team, now is your chance to ask. Just submit a comment here or email me at andrew @ usingwhs.com (not forgetting to remove the spaces!) and I will do my best to get it answered.
The best questions may even win a prize!
Just a quick post to say that the new edition of (IN)Secure magazine, Issue 20, is now available to download.
(IN)Secure is a great source of security information and best of all it is free!
This issue contains a number of interesting articles, including:
To download this issue, click here.
Dave over at the HomeServerShow.com has released the latest edition of his podcast, The Home Server Show, number 36.
This weeks show is shorter than usual but is still worth a listen. Dave talks more about the news, updates and also a follow up to last weeks Before You Build feature.
You can get more information here, and download it from iTunes or your other favourite place.
Yes, it’s that time again for this month’s update for Windows Home Server.
This one is a very small, but kind of important update. If you have your server set to perform automatic updates then you should get this fix shortly. If you don’t then you can manually update your server, and maybe now would be a good time to set your server to do automatic updates?
The updates contains the following fixes:
Windows Home Server Connector Software
Users who have either modified or deleted the Home Server Connector Software folder in their home server’s Software shared folder may have encountered problems on their home computers after an update was applied to their home server.
Home Computer Backup and Restore
Issue 1
Some users may have encountered issues when restoring files and folders from a Home Computer Backup. This update provides new functionality to help alleviate the Home Computer Backup process stalling when reaching 79% to 81% complete.
Issue 2
Prior to this update, after running the backup database repair process, some users reported being unable to open a home computer backup from the Windows Home Server Console. This issue has been fixed so home computer backups can be opened whether the home computer backup database repair wizard has been run or not.
The KB article, KB961030 will be available shortly.
Over the next few weeks, connecteddigitalworld.com will be going through a redesign, with lots of new and exciting features being launched.
I’m putting the call out to anyone who might be interested in writing for the site, whether its a review of some hardware or software, hints and tips, anything really that you think might benefit others or you just want to write about.
If you are interested, drop me an email to andrew @ usingwhs.com (just remove the spaces) and introduce yourself, and tell me what you would be interested in doing.
Also, if anyone has any ideas on what they would like to see on the site, whether its Windows Home Server, Media Center, Windows 7, whatever, send me an email or leave a comment.
Hope to hear from you!
For those of you who are interested, there are a number of security conferences coming up over the next few months.
These include the Infosec World Conference & Expo 2009 run by the MIS Training Institute and held in Orlando, Florida. The conference starts on the 7th March with two 
days of optional training sessions, followed by 3 days of conference and then another 2 days of optional training.
InfoSec World 2009 will deliver over 100 sessions, dozens of case studies, multiple tracks (including a brand-new, hands-on hacking techniques track delivered by The SANS Institute), 15 in-depth workshops, 2 co-located summits and over 140 exhibitors! For more information about the conference and to register, click here.
Another interesting conference is Black Hat. Black Hat DC just finished, and Black Hat Europe starts on the 14th April and will held in Amsterdam. Black Hat has 4 separate briefing tracks, which are Hardware and Embedded Devices, Reverse Engineering and Malware, Client Wars and Application Security, Forensics and Network Protection with lots of different sessions in each track delivering up to date and relevant information on the latest security issues.
For more information about this conference and to register, click here.
David over at the Home Server Show has just released podcast number 35 – Before you install.
This week’s show includes what to do when you first get your Windows Home Server, news and other show bits as usual. Our article on backing up your Mac using the new HP MediaSmart Servers also gets a mention (thanks David),
You can get it through iTunes, or various other methods, for more information click here.
Yesterday Western Digital announced its newly redesigned My Book World Edition network storage drive. Designed for consumers who have multiple computers on a home network, the new drive will be available in 1 terabyte and 2 terabyte capacities, and is compatible with PC and Mac computers.
My Book World Edition network drives are designed to automate and simplify the backup chore for the 36 million networked homes in the US according to research firm Parks Associates. Just plug the My Book World Edition drive into a network router, click a few buttons and the My Book World Edition storage device backs up the files from all the PCs and Macs on the network. Any changes to the files on these computers are automatically and continuously backed up to the drive.
My Book World Edition’s massive capacities are available from any computer in the home. Combined with high performance, this makes it easy to build a shared digital media library. Music, photos and videos can be streamed directly from the My Book World Edition drive to any PC, Mac or connected DLNA media player (such as Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles, wireless digital pictures frames or TVs) using the integrated UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) media server and iTunes Music server software. Families can also securely access and share their centralized files from anywhere in the world where they have access to the Internet, using the My Book World Edition drive’s Web remote access service.
The new My Book World Edition network hard drives are available now in the 1 TB capacity and expected later this month in the 2 TB capacity. MSRP for the My Book World Edition storage system with 1 TB is $229.99 USD and 2 TB is $449.99 USD.
