Download Squad

A number of message boards around the net have been receiving comments from users upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 who have been unable to complete the upgrade install.

Once the installer hits 62% complete, it locks up. You can sit and wait as long as you want, but it's not going anywhere.

The problem occurs when the Windows IPv6 helper service (which allows automatic IPv6 connectivity over a much more common IPv4 network) stops responding . Microsoft has posted a fix to this particular problem, and it's not terribly complicated.

1. Restart the computer - your system will automatically roll back to Windows Vista.
2. Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.
3. System Properties will open. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.
4. Click the New button.
5. Enter MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS into the Variable name field.
6. Copy the following bold text: iphlpsvcmigplugin.dll and paste it into the Variable value field (or type it manually)
7. Click OK three times to close the dialog boxes.
8. Re-launch your Windows 7 Upgrade installer!

Please note that this fix won't help if your install is stuck at some percentage other than 62. Strange but true. This is a specific fix for a very specific issue.

You may also want to run the System Readiness Tool for Vista and Windows 7 before trying the upgrade again. It can detect and correct certain issues that may cause trouble during the process.

Seesmic might not be the best Twitter client, but it is the first to support the new lists feature. Users who sign up to Seesmic's mailing list can get access to the latest beta version of the Adobe AIR-based desktop client, including lists. List support is not complete yet: you can view your own lists and add people to them, but you can't see which lists have added you. It looks like you can create a new list, but you can't, yet -- if you check Twitter's web interface, you'll see your list isn't really there. These features are coming sooner than later, though, and this limited support is enough for Seesmic to call "first!"

I like the idea of lists in a Twitter client, but Seesmic really seems to be taking the kitchen sink approach to development. Last time we wrote about it, Facebook Page integration had just been added. There's a good chance you'll find one killer feature in Seesmic, whether it's pages, lists, or something else, but there'll be a bunch of other features that you don't need. Seesmic's strength is in being the first or only client to implement some of its features, but I think it's spreading a little thin in trying to be a top-flight client for both Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile, Seesmic's competitor in the "widescreen," AIR-based Twitter arena, Tweetdeck, is lagging behind on lists. Techcrunch reports that Tweetdeck plans to introduce the feature soon, though, with "extensive" integration.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Mac users that have been spoiled by text editors like TextMate often find themselves frustrated when moving to a Windows machine. While there are lots of text editors for the Windows platform, it's hard to find one with the clean design sensibilities that TextMate offers.

Well, there's a new editor in town, and its name is Sublime Text. I don't mean to equate it too much to TextMate since they are very definitely different products; it's more the feel of using the products that drives the comparison.

Sublime Text prioritizes a slick user interface and features under the hood that make it a power-user's tool. For example, it sports the ability to give you a Minimap, which for developers gives you a 10,000 foot view of your code.

The best text editing tools seem to be powerful enough for programmers to use, yet incredibly useful for writers of prose. Sublime Text is no exception.

Unfortunately, Sublime Text is a commercial app - you have to pay for the quality, and it doesn't come cheap. A single user license will run you $59US. An evaluation version is also available.

Pandemic 2 is a strategy game where you play the part of a virus, bacteria, or parasite. The goal of the game is to infect and then kill all of humanity.

At the start of the game you choose to be either a virus, bacteria, or parasite. Each has their own unique characteristics, like being more or less virulent, and mutating slowly or quickly. Once you've chosen the type of pandemic you represent, you move into the gameplay.

The game starts with you infecting a very small number of people in a specific country. You can then increase the rate of infection by purchasing symptoms, resistances, and modes of infection like airborne and waterborne. You can also slow things down by getting rid of a symptom or resistance, but doing that also costs points, so you need to be careful not to waste your moves.

Pandemic 2 ends when either you win by wiping humankind off of the face of the planet, or the humans successfully develop a vaccine and prevent you from infecting everyone.

There are two modes of play, the traditional simulation mode, and a shorter, simplified mode. The short version of the game can be played in about 10 minutes, making it a good coffee break game.

Skype has been providing cheap and free VoIP, chat, and video conferencing features for Windows, Mac, and Linux for years. But just because a program works on Linux doesn't mean it's open source, and the Linux client for Skype has been just as closed a platform as the Mac and Windows versions. That's not to say that developers haven't been able to build third party add-ons and tweaks for Skype. But the source code hasn't been available, which limits the ability of the open source community to really contribute to Skype for Linux.

But it looks like that's going to change. This weekend Olivier Faurax contact Skype customer support about the availability of an RPM package for installing Skype on Mandriva Linux, and he received a reply that indicated that the Linux client for Skype would be made open source in the near future.

I was a bit skeptical, since customer service folks don't always know what's going on in the minds of management, so I sent a request for more information to Skype's corporate communications office, and it turns out that yes, Skype does plan to make its Linux client open source in the future.

It's not entirely clear when the shift will take place. But it should make it much easier for third party Linux developers to ensure that there are up to date packages for Skype for a variety of popular Linux distributions including Mandriva, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, and others. It also means that we could start seeing third party applications built around Skype code or more powerful third party plugins for Skype that enhance the application's functionality.

You can read the official statement from Skype after the break.

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