Those of you recreational gamers out there that have the older style Play Station 3 Models are most likely experiencing a problem with your system as of Yesterday afternoon. Even if you don’t use the PS3 online, you are now getting a message that says Your trophy registration is incomplete or in error. The game will now quit. It happens on most any game and whether you are trying to play locally or online via the Play Station Network. Other errors that are appearing include a 8001050F error code prompt with little or no supporting text accompanying the code.

At 8 pm EST, yesterday, Sony confirmed the problem and said the are working to resolve the issue. Resolution should come some time this evening, if Sony can keep their promise.

Another PS3 Trophy error appearing is “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will now quit.”

Some independent blog sites are recommending you dismantle your PS3 and disconnect the battery momentarily to clear the issue. Unless you are extremely technical and have a couple hours to spare (at least) I strongly encourage you not to do this as you could completely break the system. My recommendation is to wait out the problem while Sony’s engineers resolve it.

Exactly what the resolution will be, it’s hard to say. Since the PS3 can’t connect to the Play Station Network at all, it might be necessary for Sony to either send out media that the PS3 can use to read a patch from, or to even recall the units. It’s not clear at this time what the corrective action will be to get these PS3 systems working again.

Users of the new PS3 (Slim model) are not experiencing this problem as it seems to be glitch in the system clock firmware that only occurs in the older (Thick model) systems.

For the latest updates of this issue, follow my blog here, or visit the playstation blog by clicking here.

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115

Link: http://centrend.com/93h_compliance.html

 
The new law has taken effect today, so every business leader must now be certain that the information that the Commonwealth of Mass defines as personal information flows through their organization under specific guidelines.

The deadline for compliance with the new data protection laws in Massachusetts was extended at the end of 2008, and then it was extended again in 2009. There will be no further extensions. Whether you are ready or not, on March 1, 2010, you will be required by Massachusetts law to take very specific and proactive steps to secure all forms of personal information you collect and store about Massachusetts residents, whether they may be customers, employees or contractors.

The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations drafted and then refined the regulations (MA 201 CMR 17.00) in response to feedback from the business populace. The regulations mandate that every organization and individual take more responsibility for the active protection of personal data, as defined by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

All legal entities will now be required to create and maintain a Written Information Security Plan (WISP). Your organization’s WISP will cover newly required organizational precautions, as well as technological safeguards. With the regulations to be enforced by the Attorney General’s office, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will take into consideration the size of your organization and the scope of whatever personal information is recorded.

Most of the technical concerns we are now hearing about are regarding portable media and laptop computers. The new data regulations will require all portable devices and storage media containing personal information be secured by encryption technology.

Business leaders needing help determining their own level of compliance should consult an Information Technology expert, and Centrend has scheduled a free online compliance workshop. Each plan must be documented and employees must be trained on how to safely work with both physical and electronic records.

Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this initiative.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Link: http://www.centrend.com

I have encountered this a few times in visits to my customers. Users will put an email into the trash, but say, “Well, I‘ll just leave it in there until I am sure I don’t need it,” or, “I’m going to go through all of these and clean them out, because there are some in there I might want to keep!” Think of the rationale here and apply it to your real trash at work or at home. You wouldn’t put anything in the garbage and say, “Boy, I just might need that later; I’ll just put in the trash here!” People do this all the time with their email, thinking that they will get back to it, but in a world of today’s busy lifestyles this is probably not a reality. There are many ways of curing you from this bad habit. We are going to specifically talk about Microsoft Outlook here, but this could apply to webmail as well.

Creating folders under the Inbox – This is probably the easiest method. You need to keep email received from Fred? Create a folder called ‘Fred’ and put it in there. This will keep you organized and on task, and even if think you may want to get rid of it, it’s in there and you can delete it later.

Archive mail – Done with your email from 2006, but you may want to refer back to it? You can archive this email, and this will have a couple of great benefits. Once again you can refer to that folder very quickly, but you can also take some of the file strain off your Outlook by creating an archive. You can even create the archive on you server ready for backup (if applicable).

Auto Archive – Outlook has a great feature to Auto Archive your email for you. It will set up to clean out your inbox all by itself, sending the email to an archive. I have mine set to clean out every 14 days. This will take the cleanup out of your hands, you can even set it to delete emails that are X months old, but dealing with the core that this is geared to, you would probably rather have root canal that delete old emails!

Create an “almost trash” folder - This is really the same as creating a folder, but it is specific to this issue. It’s an “I’m not sure I will need it - and I don’t think I do - but let’s put it here for now” folder. This is not ideal, but will keep you in better habits. You could archive this folder as well, taking the weight off of the bulging email file ready to burst!

Empty deleted items folder upon exiting Outlook – I know scary…right? After we have done all the things we can to organize and streamline our email, we want to get rid of that trash every time you exit Outlook. Some users also think that when they put items in the Deleted Items or once they hit delete that is it gone…not true. The Deleted Items is merely just a folder waiting for you to empty it. If we turn the switch on for emptying Deleted Items, it will prompt you every time you exit Outlook!

With older Outlook clients users are restricted to 2 gigs worth of space. It sounds like a lot, but if you are one of the many email hoarders of the world, and are not using some of the practices above, this will add up quicker than you think, especially with email with loads of attachments. Once its goes past this 2 gig mark, you are putting yourself in a position to lose some or all of your email.

Still not sure how to do all this? If you have any questions, at Centrend we are always willing to help…just let us know.

- Hank
 
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Hank Lockwood
Technical Consultant
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550
 

Link: http://www.centrend.com/93h_compliance.html

A Written Information Security Plan or “WISP", is required by new regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effective March 1, 2010. Any individual or entity which receives, handles, stores or transfers personal information about Massachusetts residents must have one.

If you or your organization hasn’t already started the security plan, the best place to begin is with a determination of what personal data is collected throughout the organization, and by whom, where, when, how and why. Make a comprehensive list of all points within the organization where personal data will enter or exit, and where it is sent, noting also the amount and frequency. It’s important to document not only who collects or handles the data, but also everyone who may have access to it.

All of this is related to MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection, and Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this government mandate.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

The Daytona 500 - the “Superbowl” of Nascar - was this past Sunday and I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan! The roar of the engines, the packed in crowds, it’s all good to me. While the Nascar Sprint Cup series is considered a stock car series, there’s not much stock about the cars that are racing around the track today. Technology permeates the sport and not just in the cars themselves. For the past couple seasons, Nascar has been developing a 3-D viewing technology called Raceview, that lets fans watch the race virtually on their computer. (See screen the screen shots, below).

I’ve been following the technology for a few years and the improvements made in this current version of the software really creates a powerful racing experience. When you watch the race on TV, you have to listen to the announcers to see what is going on. They may or may not talk about your favorite drivers and they focus their commentary usually on the top 10 positions of the race because that’s where the camera is mostly focused. With Nascar Raceview I can watch any driver at any time and from any perspective I choose. For example, I can see the birds-eye view like in the large image above, the rear view to see what cars need to be passed (image at right), and flip the camera around with the click of the mouse and see who’s coming up from behind! (see image below, right.)

With the Raceview technology, you can choose to watch the race from the perspective of any driver at any time. You can also click to hear in-car radio communications between any driver and his crew chief streamed in real-time! Nascar promotes Raceview to those that aren’t watching the race live on TV, but it’s fun to use the tool while watching the race or to keep up during commercials. Hearing the drivers rant after they’ve been involved in a wreck or watching the telemetry of the car from someone toward the back that is now running faster laps than the current race leader really gives you insight that it seems even the announcers don’t have!

One thing you can’t do is see the live action crashes, blown engines, etc. You still need the TV for that but you don’t really watch the race for the crashes, DO YOU!?!?