Posted on

New Windows XP Support Deal Vetoed by Whitehall Technology Chiefs

In an amazing new twist to the seemingly endless death throws of Windows XP, it seems that someone in the corridors of power has managed to negotiate a contract with Microsoft to further extend support, and so prolong use in government departments.

Sales of Windows XP licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) ceased on June 30, 2008, although they continued for netbooks until October 2010. Extended support for Windows XP ended on April 8, 2014, after which the operating system ceased receiving further support or security updates to most users.

When the previous XP support arrangement was signed last year, the intention was to give 12 months breathing space for government users to move off XP. However, in a move that seems to be right out of an episode of Yes Minister, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) had negotiated a contract with Microsoft to replace the one-year deal with a contract to support XP and Windows Server 2003, which reaches its end of life on 14 July 2015.

However, according to Computer Weekly sources, the proposed deal was put together without involvement from the Technology Leaders Network, the forum for government CTOs that governs Whitehall technology policy. Fortunately the Whitehall technology chiefs have vetoed new Windows XP support deal.

It is difficult to describe the continuing use of this ancient and venerable Operating System (OS) in government circles, without making reference to zombies, or the walking dead. Whether the metaphor refers to the Windows XP operating system, or the civil servants haunting the corridors of power, we will leave it to your imagination.

For more information on Microsoft and the Extended Windows XP Support see:

Posted on

UK government Confirms Open Document Format

In a move that goes against proposals by Microsoft, the UK government has confirmed Open Document Format (ODF) as the standard government document format. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has today announced that the ODF will be the standard for sharing or collaborating on government documents, with PDF or HTML also approved for viewing.

The decision follows a long and often controversial process that first started in 2011, and led to a consultation that concluded in February. The possible open standards were published on the Government Standards Hub website, with requests for ideas and comments. Microsoft had urged the government to include Open XML (OOXML) which is the standard used for its Word documents, however opponents say is not a truly open, vendor-independent format.

According to the article in Computer Weekly, the government said that the benefits of Open Document Format would include:

  • Citizens, businesses and voluntary organisations will no longer need specialist software to open or work with government documents.
  • People working in government will be able to share and work with documents in the same format, reducing problems when they move between formats.
  • Government organisations will be able to choose the most suitable and cost effective applications, knowing their documents will work for people inside and outside of government.

It would be interesting to know how much the delays and procrastination over open standards, has cost all the users, citizens, businesses and voluntary organisations who interface with government. Meanwhile revenue for Microsoft continues unabated. Go figure!

To find out more about Open Standards Principles visit Government IT Standards Hub

Posted on

Government Signs Deal to Extend Microsoft Windows XP Support

In a move that sends shivers down the spines of security and IT professionals across the country, the government has signed a deal with Microsoft to provide Windows XP support and security updates across the whole UK public sector for 12 months after regular support for the operating system ends on 8 April. The agreement is worth £5.548m, and covers critical and important security updates for Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003, all of which have reached end of life in Microsoft’s normal product cycles.

While it is difficult to get any accurate figures for the numbers of Windows XP desktops which are still in use in government circles, approximately 800,000 PCs in the NHS still ran XP as of September 2013, and 27% of all desktops worldwide still run XP (Netmarketshare.com).

Perhaps some bold MP would like to ask Parliament why government users are still using using this outdated operating system. You could buy an awful lot of Linux support for £5.548m.

For more information on the Extended Microsoft Windows XP Support see:

Posted on

How to Use the WordPress Media Manager Gallery

As of December 2012 and the release of WordPress Version 3.5, the new Media Manager has changed the way photo galleries are created. If you are new to WordPress, or have been using one of the photo gallery plugins and themes, then this post might help you use the built-in WordPress Media Manager to display photographs on your site.

Place your cursor at the point on your post or page where you want the photo galley to appear, and follow the following easy steps:

  1. Click on the Add Media button on the left, just above the Editor quick menu bar.
  2. Click on Create Gallery
  3. Click on the image you want to add
  4. Under Attachment Details fill in the following fields:
    • Title
    • Caption
    • Alt Text
    • Description
  5. Add as many photos from your media library into the gallery as required, repeating 3 and 4 above for each
  6. Click on Create a new gallery
  7. At the Edit Gallery screen drag the images into the required order.
  8. Under Gallery Settings Select the number of columns of thumbnails to display
  9. Click on Insert Gallery to finish.

You can then preview or publish your gallery of photographs in the usual way. If you decide that you need to add more photographs to the gallery, or change the order the pictures display, follow the following steps:

  1. Edit the post containing the gallery.
  2. Click on Visual editor tab, if not already selected.
  3. Click on the gallery you want to edit
  4. Click on the top left icon in the gallery (a camera picture)
  5. To add new images click on Add to Galley and proceed as before.
  6. Reorder or make any other required changes then click on Update Gallery.

That is it! All you need to do to use the new Media Manager to display photographs on your WordPress site.

For more information about using the built-in WordPress Media Manager, including a video of inserting a gallery then click here to visit How to Insert a WordPress Photo Gallery into Your Blog

Posted on

Top 10 WordPress Plugins

When we get asked “What are the Top 10 WordPress Plugins?”, it is sometimes a challenge to limit the list because there are so many out there. The ones which we are currently finding the most useful are (in alphabetical order):

  1. Breadcrumb NavXT
  2. Broken Link Checker
  3. CMS Tree Page View
  4. Contact Form 7
  5. Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin
  6. Types – Complete Solution for Custom Fields and Types
  7. Viper’s Video Quicktags
  8. WordPress Database Backup
  9. WP-PageNavi
  10. WP-Table Reloaded

The details of our Top 10 WordPress Plugins are listed below, together with links to further information. Each is given a TechCo Rating, which is an indication of the level of use which we would expect to see.

TechCo Rating:

  • Basic – Every site must have a plugin like this.
  • Intermediate – Most sites should use this plugin
  • Advanced – Plugin could provide functionality to make the site special.
  • Admin – Plugin provides administrators with tools not seen by the public.

Breadcrumb NavXT
TechCo Rating: Intermediate
Breadcrumb trails are a good supplementary navigation system that aid in site usability, and can provide SEO benefits. This plugin adds a breadcrumb navigation showing the visitor’s path to their current location. These represent the page hierarchy leading to the current page.

For details on how to use Breadcrumb NavXT plugin visit Breadcrumb NavXT.

Broken Link Checker
TechCo Rating: Admin
This useful WordPress plugin checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the Admin dashboard if any are found.

Among other things it will detect missing images and files, and links to deleted YouTube videos. New and modified entries are checked immediately, while the plugin periodically checks links in posts, pages, comments, custom fields and the blogroll. If any problems are found you get a notification on the Dashboard.

You can run a full site scan from scratch by Settings, Link Checker, Advanced and then click on Recheck All Pages. You might get a surprise if you add this plugin to a mature WordPress site!

For more information on the Broken Link Checker plugin visit the Broken Link Checker site.

CMS Tree Page View
TechCo Rating: Admin
This plugin is for admin use only, and adds a CMS-like tree view of all pages on the site. You can use the tree view to edit, view, add and search pages, while drag and drop allows you to rearrange page order.

To find out more about CMS Tree Page View visit the CMS Tree Page View site.

Contact Form 7
TechCo Rating: Intermediate
Not just another contact form plugin, Contact Form 7 is simple and flexible. It allows you to flexibly design the form and mail, and allows you to manage multiple contact forms. In addition, it supports many features including AJAX submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and file uploading.

To find out more about Contact Form 7 visit the Contact Form 7 site.

Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin
TechCo Rating: Advanced
This plugin can be useful for managing permalinks without losing existing SEO to the page, or for sites converted to WordPress. It allows you to redirect Pages, Posts or Custom Post Types to another location quickly, for internal or external URLs.

The options available are extensive, so for more information on how to use the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin visit the Quick Page Post Redirect plugin site.

Types – Complete Solution for Custom Fields and Types
TechCo Rating: Advanced
This is a useful plugin if you need to create custom fields, custom post types, or a custom taxonomy to your website through the WordPress admin screen instead of adding PHP code to your theme. For PHP developers, Types provides a comprehensive PHP API and documentation.

To find out more about the Types plugin, check out the Types User Guide

Viper’s Video Quicktags
TechCo Rating: Intermediate
Easily embed videos from various video websites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and Vimeo into your posts. Since version 2.9, WordPress has featured native easy embeds. However this plugin offers more customization than the default options. It will work alongside the easy embed code, and you can opt to use either embed method.

For more information about Viper’s Video Quicktags, visit the Viper’s Video Quicktags site

WP DB Backup – WordPress Database Backup
TechCo Rating: Basic
Everyone should have a regular backup of their WordPress database, and this plugin provides on-demand and scheduled backups. To configure your backup go to Tools, Backup, and backup your WordPress database.
To install this plugin search for “WP DB Backup” Keyword on the Install Plugins page.

To find out more about WP DB Backup

WP-PageNavi
TechCo Rating: Advanced
This is a handy plugin if you want to replace the old Older posts and Newer posts links with some more advanced paging navigation.

This plugin provides the wp_pagenavi() template tag which generates fancy pagination links. See the installation instructions for using it in your theme.

To ind out more about WP-PageNavi, visit WP-PageNavi site

WP-Table Reloaded
TechCo Rating: Intermediate
This plugin allows you to create and easily manage tables in the admin-area of WordPress. However it has been superseded by the TablePress plugin, which at time of writing stands at 0.9-RC

You can still download WP-Table Reloaded, but if you are starting a new project, we recommend waiting for the full release of TablePress.

For more information on the table plugin see TablePress replaces WP-Table Reloaded from the plugin author.

Well, that is our current stab at the Top 10 WordPress Plugins. This list may change in a few months as trends and available plugins, so is not fixed in stone. In future we will offer deeper insight into some of these plugins a give examples of how they can be used.

Posted on

Trevor Carter Memorial Gig

While we are wondering what do about all the extra weight we have gained by overeating over the Christmas break, a thought occurs about getting out to the Trevor Carter Memorial Gig, which we are helping to promote. This promises to be the best musical event in Bristol next year. What better way to shed a few pound than rocking the night away to some great Bristol sounds?

For those of you who do not know, Trevor Carter was a musician, programmer and friend who died at home on 30 January 2011. He is sorely missed by his wife Conny, and his many friends and former band mates, who are getting together to celebrate his life with a memorial concert at a local Bristol venue where he played during his musical career. As a fellow programmer and colleague of TechCo Systems, we are proud to provide technical and marketing support to the venture, as well as a bit of SEO to ensure that the gig gets the prominence it deserves.

We understand that it will be held at one of the numerous places where Trevor played with one of his various bands, but it is sure to be somewhere around Bristol or Swindon. As soon as the venue and date are confirmed, you can bet that we will publicize it here!

If you would be interested in contributing to the Trevor Carter Memorial Gig as a performer or crew, or just go along to watch what is sure to be a brilliant evening of entertainment, please let them know as soon as possible via contact form on the website Contact. Please note that all proceeds of this event will be donated to the charity determined by Conny and Trevor’s family.

Posted on

Bredolab Botnet Still Active

More Tax Payment malware news today, with a resurgence of the Bredolab botnet.

Our MessageLabs Anti-Virus Service reported a suspicious email, similar to the Tax Spam Malware Warning yesterday. The message title once again was Your Tax Payment ID [Random Number] is failed

This time Symantec reported it as Trojan.Bredolab, which is a likely resurfacing of a Bredolab botnet.

The Bredolab botnet was partially dismantled in November 2010 through the seizure by Dutch law enforcement agents of 143 command and control servers, effectively removing the botnet herder’s ability to control the botnet centrally. Although the botnet’s size and capacity has been severely reduced by the law enforcement intervention.

A PC infected with Bredolab shows a number of effects as the malware:

  • Downloads more malware on to the compromised computer
  • Lowers the security settings on the infected computer
  • May result in file deletion

If your anti virus software or mail gateway informs you that it has detected Bredolab, follow the instructions and do not open any affected files. To make sure that your machine does not get infected keep your anti virus software switched on and the signatures up to date.

Further resources

Posted on

WordPress Update Out Of Memory Error Fixed

Have you had a problem in upgrading your WordPress version on a website hosted on 1and1? This problem has been reported on sites hosted on both 1and1.co.uk or 1and1.com, but may occur on sites hosted with other providers too. It occurs when you attempt an automatic upgrade on a working WordPress site to elevate to WordPress 3.0 or greater.

WordPress Update Error
The first thing you know about the problem is an error part way through the automatic update process, which looks something like this:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 28835840) (tried to allocate 3981531 bytes) in [Blog root path]/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1426

According to numerous postings on other sites, this appears to relate to PHP memory allocation on shared servers, although checking the memory_limit on one of our problem sites using phpinfo() gives a much higher value than the problem scripts appear to require.

The error messages are not always the same, but samples which have been seen include:

  • Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 28835840) (tried to allocate 3981531 bytes) in [Blog root path]/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1426
  • (similar message) in [Blog root path]/wp-admin/admin.php on line 40
  • (similar message) in [Blog root path]/wp-admin/includes/media.php on line 268

We host and support a large number of WordPress sites, most of which have upgraded without experiencing this problem. However, where it has occurred it is a challenge, as you should always update WordPress to the latest version to ensure that any security fixes are installed.

After trying a number of suggested cures unsuccessfully, including

  • Setting memory_limit = 48M in php.ini (No difference)
  • Editing the file with the error to add ini_set(’memory_limit’, ‘48M’); (No difference)
  • Adding define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); to wp-settings.php. (Yep! No difference)
  • Adding a line php_value memory_limit 32M in .htaccess file (Which causes a fatal Internal Server Error)

WordPress Update Out Of Memory Error Solution
The fix for the WordPress Out Of Memory Error, on the problem site at least, was to disable all the installed plugins, and then carry out the automatic upgrade again. This time it ran like a dream, and the site was back in order once the plugins had been re-enabled, with WordPress 3.2.1 installed.

The only regret in finding the solution is that we did not disable the plugins one at a time, in order to see which one was the trigger. However, on a working site with a large following, that extra delay it did not seem appropriate.

Thanks for this blindingly simple solution to the Out Of Memory Error when upgrading WordPress go to David Orlo at DavidOrlo.com.
Click here to see how he found the fix

Posted on

Uniform Traffic Ticket Malware Spam

If you live anywhere except the City of New York you may have been surprised to receive an email recently, which claims to come from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Even if you aren’t based in the United States, or even don’t drive a car, you may well see the posting which poses as a “Uniform Traffic Ticket” and says that you are charged with speeding at 7:25 AM on the 5th July 2011.

People may be tempted to open the attachment out of curiosity, or even alarm if they have been driving in New York City, but do not, or you may end up with a computer infected with malware.

However, the message is certainly not from New York State Police and the attachment does not contain a speeding ticket. In fact, the attachment contains a trojan that, if opened, can install itself on the user’s computer. Typically, such trojans are able to contact a remote server and download further malware that can steal information from the infected computer and allow criminals to control it from afar.

The email sender address has been reported as automailer.nnn, no-reply.nnn and info.nnn, all purportedly at nyc.gov. It goes without saying that the New York State Police and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles have nothing to do with this email, and this should be treated as all Viruses and Spyware. The New York State Police Computer Crime Unit has issued a Hoax E-mail Alert dealing with the Uniform Traffic Ticket Malware Spam.

The attached file, which is called something like Ticket-O64-211.zip, Ticket-728-2011.zip, or just Ticket.zip, is designed to download further malicious code onto your computer and compromise your security. Sophos anti-virus products detect the malware payload as Mal/ChepVil-A, while the CyberCrime & Doing Time Blog identifies that the malware connects to a Russian domain and downloads files called “/ftp/g.php” and “pusk3.exe”.

The Uniform Traffic Ticket Malware Spam email is probably the work of a Botnet, which is a group of computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners’ knowledge. The network of private computers, sometimes known as zombies or robots, run autonomously and automatically to send out spam emails to encourage users to open virus or Trojan infected attachments. This means that it is pointless blocking the sender, as the sender address is forged, and unrelated to the actual computer used to send the email.

We recommend that you delete the e-mail it and not forward it to anyone else. Make sure that you have active anti-virus software, and have your firewall switched on. Of course you should only open e-mails from familiar and trusted sources; if you really have been speeding in New York City, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles will certainly find a way to let you know!

For further information on this subject:

Posted on

Police Issue Online Viral Madeleine Message

An image presenting Madeleine McCann as a six-year-old with dark skin and dark hair was released by British police last night in a “viral” internet video aimed at coaxing fresh information from the friends, family and associates of her abductors. The Home Office’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) hope that it will be so widely posted on Internet blogs and social networking sites that it becomes the top item if anyone searches for “Madeleine”.

Detectives believe people who know Madeleine’s location regularly search her name online to trace developments in the investigation and police tactics. Madeleine went missing in May 2007 while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

In the spirit of assisting the police in this enterprise we are posting the link to the Madeleine video here. We are also posting on our supported sites, blogs and via Twitter.

The CEOP Centre has issued the online viral message aimed at anyone close to the person who was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. That person could be a relative, friend, work colleague or neighbour. Whoever they are, they have a secret that could reveal what happened to Madeleine and protect other children. 

In order to increase the possibility of reaching that person, CEOP supported by global law enforcement agencies and specialist charities, is asking the public to help spread the message via the Internet.

Click here to see the latest Madeleine appeal