The worlds largest photo , taken upon a hill top in Budapest is viewable in all it’s glory here. Not only is the picture a stunner and unbelievably clear even at massive levels of zoom but it show cases what we consider to be some very impressive technology! For the photo enthusiasts out there, according to Engadget, the image was created using two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras fitted with 400mm Minolta lenses and 1.4X teleconverters and a robotic camera mount.

Not only is the camera tech impressive but the way the photo is viewable (and pan-able, and zoom-able!) in a streaming like manner on the site must have involved some several man hours (and some rather clever men!).

While the site is in Hungarian you don’t need to read the page to enjoy the epic image, and bear in mind the image is around 200GB and as such may take a while to load, though nowhere near as long as we’d expect! We believe it’s well worth the wait.

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Today Microsoft support ends for Windows 2000 (Professional and Server) and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Why do you care? This means no more support calls, no more patches – of any kind.

If you’re still running Windows 2000 in any shape, or form, you’ve long past the time you should’ve upgraded, and you’re now in the “danger zone” (if that doesn’t make you think of Kenny Loggins I don’t know what will).

If you’ve got XP machines in your network you should already be on Service Pack 3. If you’ve got a managed update infrastructure (WSUS, for example) and not yet approved the installation then today is the time to make sure that you’ve done it. Just prepare your users for the possible interruptions. It can take a while!

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Here at Glo Networks we’ve recently taken delivery of our first iPad. Having had some hands on time with the device we thought we’d offer our opinions on the current must-have gadget.

The first thing likely to cross your mind when using an iPad for the first time is how alien it is to hold and how strange it feels to use. This does not last long though as, much like the iPhone before it, after a short while with an iPad in your hands it seems perfectly natural and a joy to use. The onscreen keyboard is a decent size which makes text entry quick and simple.

The display on the device is crystal clear and a pleasure to use. The apps that were designed for the iPad all look fantastic (The email application in landscape mode is a particular joy!) however the older apps, designed for the iPhone, while useable and upscaled on the iPad are much less nice to look at. As more time passes we would expect to see iPad versions released for the majority of the most popular iPhone apps!

One App that has a Glo recommendation is Jump Desktop. This allows you to control remote PC’s via RDP. This is a very useful tool for those who may wish to use their iPad as a kind of replacement for a laptop, as it can allow access to all the programs, files etc. on your PC from your iPad. Using this app to connect to your PC you also have access to websites with Flash (we tested on Youtube, video was laggy and audio not perfect but compared to a complete lack of Flash it’s a definite improvement!).

Our major gripe with the iPad is, and has always been (since announcement) the lack of multi-tasking capabilities. As with the iPhone, to switch between apps means one closing to allow the other to open. While this is not such an issue on a phone (though annoying) on a tablet PC this becomes a major drawback! However it seems Apple are very aware of this, and have promised multitasking added in an update soon!

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As part of every day life here at Glo Networks, we try and keep abreast of technical news and information – both good and bad.

Today the Sunbelt Software blogged about a recurrence in Twitter controlled Botnets.

If you’re not sure what a botnet is, it’s basically a collection of compromised computers that are controlled by one or more individuals.

Twitter controlled botnets aren’t new, but a simple to use, easily available, application to help create the program to do this is new. The “problem” with them is that its relatively easy for Twitter to track and/or block these control accounts.

The really great thing is that once Sunbelt got in touch with the Twitter team they responded in 13 minutes. Thats impressively good – although Glo Networks isn’t anywhere near the same scale as Twitter, we do take pride in responding to our customers via our online helpdesk within 10 minutes.

Whilst we might have been critical in the past about Twitter, it’s undoubtedly here to stay and its really great to see that their team are on the ball.

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Did anyone watch Strike Back on Sky 1 this week ? Who else cringed at ‘Because we’ve only got one upload we can’t …’  when they were explaining why they couldn’t trace an uploaded video on the internet ? (I had to listen to it a few times to check that my ears worked.) Hint … an anonymous proxy would have gone down a lot better.

We at Glo Networks would like to offer our consultancy time for free to TV and Film to ensure ridiculous comments like that don’t get scripted, filmed, edited then released in the future.

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Apparently some of us here at Glo Networks have been slacking on keeping up with the Apple iPad release information, and this has been on the Apple website for about “a week”.

However, incase you’re like the rest of us geeks who don’t bow entirely to the feet of Jobs then you may be interested in hearing that the iPad is due for release in the UK on Friday 28th of May, with pre-orders being accepted from Monday 10th of May.

Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland also have the same dates.

The iPad has a suggested retail price of £429 (inc. VAT) for 16GB, £499 (inc. VAT) for 32GB, £599 (inc. VAT) for 64GB for Wi-Fi models and £529 (inc. VAT) for 16GB, £599 (inc. VAT) for 32GB and £699 (inc. VAT) for 64GB for Wi-Fi + 3G models. However, some mobile carriers (O2, Vodafone and Orange) in the UK have plans for subsidised units.

Interestingly Apple are claiming that they have sold over one million iPads and users have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

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It appears that Google’s browser Chrome is about to drop the http:// bit in the URL bars and people don’t appear to be happy about it. We think it’s a great idea as probably 99% of internet users haven’t got a clue why its there or what alternatives there are (like ftp).

For our customers with macBooks check out this dock. First time we’ve seen a dock that actually looks sensible and is a very good price. Should keep the macbook cooler as well.

Office 2010 is complete, we can provide quotes and demos for it now, you can upgrade to it for free when it comes out (if you’ve recently bought Office 2007) and it should be avalible for companies from May 1st 2010.

The 50p Broadband tax has been scrapped. We believe this is good news as those proposing it where thinking too small. They wanted to make sure everyone could get 2Mb by 2012 or to make sure everyone could get 40Mb by 2017. While Korea will get 1Gb (that’s over 1000Mb) from 2012 and I bet it wont cost them more than £40 per month either !

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We use and love TeamViewer here and to share that love here’s a working coupon code. It gives you 3% off when you buy any TeamViewer package from their online shop.

71104-68-627309

Any problems or questions please let us know .

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Just in case no one saw the news post on our main site; we’re growing and looking for more team members.

Check out the details and how to get in contact at this link -

http://www.glo-networks.com/news.php#news-story-6

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Products go out of support fairly regularly. But what does it actually mean? In a nut shell there will be no further software updates, of any kind, from Windows/Microsoft Update. This means no feature updates, and most importantly absolutely no security updates.

You have to admit, that’s a pretty big deal. Support ends for:

• Windows Vista, without any Service Packs, on April 13, 2010
• Windows XP, with Service Pack 2, on July 13, 2010

With those dates looming you should probably think about updating or upgrading. Windows XP is a dated Operating System, and even with SP3, considering an upgrade to Windows 7 is a sensible choice.

If you’re already on Vista and you bought your licenced copy between June 26, 2009 and January 31, 2010 you could already qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 – depending on what sort of licence it is and where it originated.

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