Interesting New Your Post Article….enjoy.

The truth hurts AT&T — and Verizon is all too happy to inflict the pain.

Early this month, AT&T sued Verizon over its new “There’s a Map for That” campaign, claiming the plucky ads mislead consumers about AT&T’s 3G coverage area. Instead of backing down, Verizon took AT&T’s complaint and used it as ammunition for its own legal filing in response.

Verizon opens with this slam: “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.”

Verizon’s campaign, which started last month, compares the geographic reach of its 3G network to AT&T’s. The ads feature two maps, including a blue one for AT&T that shows big white gaps where its 3G network isn’t available.

AT&T complains the ads mislead consumers into thinking the white areas reflect parts of the country where AT&T doesn’t have cellphone coverage — not just 3G services. A judge is scheduled to hear a request today from AT&T for a court order to bar Verizon from using the maps in its ads.

The Verizon ads spoof Apple’s “There’s an App for That” commercials for its popular iPhone. The 53-page filing claims the real issue for AT&T is its failure to expand its network ahead of the rollout of Apple’s iPhone, for which AT&T is the sole wireless provider.

“AT&T may not like the message that the ads send, but this court should reject its efforts to silence the messenger,” Verizon said in its filing.

Verizon said AT&T is seeking an immediate order to yank the ads “to gain a tactical advantage during the critical holiday shopping season.”

Meanwhile, Verizon, with the help of ad agency McCann Erickson, has rolled out three more “Map” spots with a holiday theme, including a riff on “The Island of the Misfit Toys” from a classic Christmas special.

The ad shows an iPhone relegated to the land of castoff toys — not because of its snazzy features and sleek design — but because of AT&T’s spotty 3G coverage. When one of the toys is surprised to see the iPhone banished there, AT&T’s blue coverage map pops up and suddenly the toys understand.

Verizon’s irreverent ads appear to be striking a chord with consumers.

Robert Passikoff, the founder and president of Brand Keys, a consulting firm, said Verizon is moving up his brand index in terms of loyalty and engagement.

“Verizon is getting stronger in the wireless category,” he said. “AT&T is, if not worse, staid.”

The way I see it its going to take far more than the “Iphone” or a single product to keep ATT in the scheme of things. ATT has  far more failures than it has success. Look at the U-Verse product for example. They tried to go the cheap route by trying to mimic FIOS. U-Verse is Fiber to the Node. Basically, it brings fiber out part of the way, to those big refrigerator-sized boxes in the neighborhood. Past that point, it’s just VDSL.  Everything you get with U-Verse rides on that VDSL – the television channels are pure IPTV, and shares the bandwidth with your internet service.

FIOS is fiber to the premises. They actually bring out fiber right up to the building, resulting in significantly higher potential bandwidth available. The other key difference is that with FIOS, the television service is transmitted via QAM, same as digital cable. It is multiplexed on the same fiber optic cable at a different frequency from the IP service. This means that not only do you not have the service delivery issues of IPTV, but also the TV service doesn’t rob bandwidth.

So wich one you think is best? Well if you still cant figure it out, let me help you!  It is the difference between night and day – FIOS is far superior technologically to U-Verse, and always will be.

I found this article on the recent lawsuit by ATT related to the advertising campaign that Verizon ran. The funny thing is that ATT is not suing because of the fact that the campaign is untrue…but rather unfair competition. See below!

Verizon fired back Monday in the war of words between itself and AT&T, arguing that AT&T’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking Verizon’s current ad campaign should be denied, as Verizon’s ads were truthful.

Put another way: “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts,” Verizon’s memorandum of law said, filed in response to AT&T’s TRO request.

Verizon’s motion was filed late Monday in a Georgia district court.

On Nov. 3, AT&T sued Verizon, asking for a temporary injunction blocking Verizon’s ad campaign, which has aggressively portrayed Verizon’s network as a reason for customers to switch from AT&T. On Nov. 13, AT&T issued a detailed rebuttal of what it apparently felt were the claims Verizon made in its campaign. One of AT&T’s chief objections was that customers can take advantage of Web browsing and other smartphone features even if they’re outside of the 3G network, but connected to the AT&T EDGE network.

In its response, Verizon claims that its ads should be considered solely on the merits of the 3G networks Verizon claims its ads compare. Verizon’s filing claims that Verizon’s 3G network covers five times more geographic area than AT&T’s 3G network.

“Despite the far smaller size of its 3G network, AT&T has spent tens of millions of dollars making its 3G network, which it dubs the “Nation’s Fastest 3G Network,” the centerpiece of its national advertising since at least the summer of 2008,” Verizon charged. “AT&T now is attempting to silence Verizon’s ads that include maps graphically depicting the geographic reach of AT&T’s 3G network as compared to Verizon’s own 3G network because AT&T does not like the truthful picture painted by that comparison.”

Since Verizon’s ads have not been legally found to be misleading or false, a TRO is unwarranted, Verizon argued.

AT&T representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Here are a few tools I have come across that are worth mentioning. Enjoy

DVDFab Decrypter

Much like DVD Shrink, DVDFab Decrypter cuts through copy protection and rips DVDs to your hard drive. Unlike DVD Shrink, DVDFab does not offer compression tools. DVDFab is shareware, but its trial version lets you do nearly as much as you’d ever need. That said, users who pony up for the platinum edition don’t seem to have any regrets.

DVD Decrypter

The freeware DVD Decrypter works much like DVD Shrink and DVDFab, ripping DVDs to your hard drive by tearing through pesky copy protection. Like DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter hasn’t been actively developed for a while, but it’s still doing the job for most folks without complaint.

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Now that we’ve seen some of the most popular, it’s time to narrow it down to choose your ultimate favorite:

Any DVD and DVD43

This week’s honorable mentions go out to AnyDVD (Windows, shareware) and DVD43 (freeware)

There are other out there like DVDX copy, I can think of few others as well. If your favorite didn’t make the list or you want to point out something, let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.

Support any cancer organizations in your area. Here is a great story of survival!!

Photos courtesy of Lidia Boicu (Oh So Posh Photography)

This post is not about computers or IT related. If anyone ever had relatives or family with a cancer related issue would appreciate this story. Please donate to support this cause.

The Tiny Sparrow Foundation will soon be an established non-profit organization started by cancer survivor and passionate photographer Lidia Boicu. Lidia has endured a grueling battle with breast cancer and knows all too well how families are impacted any and all forms of cancer, especially those families whose children are the target of this unforgiving disease. During her journey, Lidia decided to use her love of photography as an outlet to relieve some of the frustration, anxiety, and pain she would be feeling at different times from chemotherapy and surgical procedures. If you take just a moment to view some of her work at Oh So Posh Photography, you will see that Lidia has been blessed with an incredible talent for capturing beautiful images, precious faces, and distinct personalities.

For Lidia, it wasn’t just enough to establish herself as a talented photographer. She wants to use her time selflessly to personally photograph children with cancer to capture a lifetime of memories for families who may not have a lifetime to spend together. Through her Tiny Sparrow Foundation, Lidia will be able to travel to families who have children with cancer to take pictures, then provide them with a photo album, Christmas cards, and irreplaceable images. She has already photographed precious Kate McRae and little baby Walker who are both suffering from childhood cancer.

Lidia’s fledgling Tiny Sparrow Foundation could use your support in the form of donations or just by spreading the news by word of mouth to your friends and families. Many great projects are in the works, but they all require funding. Lidia would like to network with other photographers so as to minimize traveling expenses. If you know of any photographers that would be interested in donating their time and services, please use this contact form. Lidia is simply asking anybody that is willing to help and that has it in their hearts to be part of creating some memories for families struck by the tragedy of cancer (or any other terminal illness) to donate whatever they can so she can get this started. If not, please take the time to spread the word and visit this site for updates and stories about the development of the Tiny Sparrow Foundation.

I had some issues with this, although some issues may be related to a patch that recently installed the hotfix is here. Run it from a dos command prompt.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974571 patch that installed end of October.

hotfix: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168248

After this is done, if still nothing happens after reinstalling communicator then try these steps.

1. Log into the computer as an administrator.
2. Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Manage.
3. In the left column, expand Services and Applications and click on Services.
4. In the right pane, locate the following services:
COM+ Event System
COM+ System Application
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
5. Double-click on the service to bring up the properties and set each one of
the services to Automatic. Make sure they are all started.
6. While the properties are up, click on the Log On tab and make sure that each
of these services have the options, “Local System account” and “Allow
service to interact with Desktop” checked.
7. Click on OK and reboot the computer.
8. When the computer comes back up, click on Start > Run and type in “appwiz.cpl”.
Then click on OK.

This worked on about eight out of ten desktops. Good luck!

In the event you are using either a eval copy or need to change the activation key here are some instructions on how to do so.

Follow these steps:

Close all Microsoft Office applications.

Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration

Note You may also find another subkey that resembles the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration\{91120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

If you find additional subkeys that reference Microsoft 12.0 registration, open each subkey, and then identify the product by the ProductName entry.
For example: ProductName=Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007

When you find the subkey for the product from which you want to remove the existing product license key, delete the following entries:
DigitalProductID
ProductID

Exit Registry Editor.
The next time that you try to run an Office application, you will be prompted for a new product license key. Then, you can enter the product license key.

Hit the “Install Now” button and you Office app, will be updated with the new key. After updating you can activate you Office app, without reinstalling it.

Corporate migration to Windows 7 may be less about evaluating the new Microsoft operating system and more about how to properly move off XP.
As we are doing so now, I am sure other companies IT pros will have to figure out how long it will take to get all their XP desktops to Windows 7 before XP support runs out or before application vendors quit producing XP versions of upgrades or new software, which some predict could come as early as 2012.
Windows 7 offers a host of interesting corporate features such as AppLocker, DirectAccess, Branch Cache and XP Mode, a virtualization technology that should buy time for users who migrate but must hold on to key legacy applications.
Gartner predicts that more than half of the corporate Windows user-base is skipping Vista and aiming at Windows 7.
While that means XP users won’t have to tangle with Vista in name, it doesn’t mean they will avoid the application compatibility issues that gave Vista a black eye right out of the blocks in November 2006. Windows 7 is built on the Vista code base.
If you are on XP, Windows 7 isn’t going to solve a lot of Vista’s migration problems. The few and proud corporate users however that did go to Vista will likely have an easier transition than the ones going from XP to 7.
Application compatibility issues from Vista to 7 are few and far in between, however XP to 7 will see some challenges.

Microsoft says nearly all applications that run on Vista will run on Windows 7 and early testing by users is beginning to validate that claim.
In addition, hardware upgrades made for Vista are relevant for Windows 7 rollouts.
While those rollouts won’t be painless for Vista converts, it is those on the XP side who will have to tap into their planning and organizational skills.

The predominant migration questions among those coming off XP are “when” and “how.”
Bottom line, by 2012 if you are still on XP it may turn into a complicated expensive preposition; Since you would likely need to have a custom support contract in order to gain support for XP.