Microsoft is planning on retiring IE6 and IE7 with a forced upgrade in January 2012.  This is great news for web developers!  Internet Explorer 6 was a nightmare to develop for.  I say that it was a nightmare to develop for because I don't think anyone should be supporting it anymore.  If you are then you are doing something very very wrong.  And if you are, I can only imagine that you are being forced to do so by corporate or goverment overlords!

Windows XP users will be upgraded to IE 8.  Windows Vista and 7 users will be upgraded to IE9.  For users of Windows XP I encourage you to use a different browser.  The reason for this is that you are missing more and more of the internet.  You can test your browsers support for HTML5 at HTML5 test.  For people that don't know what you are missing they are little things like images, gradients, fonts, audio, and video.  If you try typing "do a barrel roll" into google using IE8 you are missing out on the fun.  Try it using an up to date browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

The forced upgrade is due to security threats that are not and will not be patched in older versions of IE.

Now might be a good time to backup your system.  You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by backing up your files.  For easy offsite backup you can a service such as Dropbox, or Carbonite.  For image based backups you can use Acronis, Clonezilla, or DriveImage XML.  These links are far from extensive as there are many good backup alternatives.  Please, for the love of the poor nerd you might turn to for help.  I encourage you to backup your system now if you haven't done so in a while.

Windows Server 2008 x64 has both 32 bit ODBC data sources and 64 bit ODBC data sources. They are managed separately. Setting up a 32 bit ODBC connection in Windows Server 2008 x64. Start, Run, C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe To setup the 64 bit ODBC connection go to: Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Data Sources (ODBC). For consistency you should setup a matching 32 and 64 bit connections. Otherwise you may run into the error "[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found".

If you receive an error that contains the message: "ASN1 bad tag value met." The link below has a manual way of configuring the SSL certificate. http://blogs.msdn.com/vijaysk/archive/2008/11/25/certenroll-cx509enrollment-p-installresponse-asn1-bad-tag-value-met-0x8009310b.aspx

After 10 grueling hours racing, the little Creation Autosportif Team from the UK beat off a race-long charge from rivals Playstation Pescarolo Sport to finish an excellent 3rd place in the prestigious Mil Milhas endurance event, marking the final round of the Le Mans Series for 2008.

Joined by quick Englishman Stuart Hall for the event, Creation regulars Jamie Campbell-Walter (Scotland)and Felipe Ortiz (Switzerland) were quickly at home in their familiar surroundings and Hall adapted very quickly to the factory Creation CA07-Judd chassis, having driven a Pescarolo chassis all year for rival privateer British team 'Rollcentre Racing'. Though unable to challenge the superior factory backed Peugeot entries Jamie stamped his authority on qualifying for the 'rest' of the field, ending up almost a full second faster than the usually quick Jean-Christophe Boullion (France) in the factory Pescarolo.

Despite a brief threat of 'Sao Paulo' rain on race morning, the entire 374 lap International event was run in dry, warm conditions. Jamie took the start, staying with the Peugeots for a few laps before settling into race rhythm, and trading places with Boullion in the Pescarolo and Michael Vergers (Holland) in the Barazi Gulf Zytek P2. Everything seemed settled until just before 2 hours. Felipe (Ortiz) had been in the car no more than a handful of laps when he made an unscheduled pit stop. It transpired that he was clipped by a slower GT2 Porsche so he chose to make a stop to check for damage. Nothing was found and he resumed the race in 4th position. Then just after 2 hours, Boullion appeared on the Tv screens, the Pescarolo limping around with a lot of smoke coming from the front corner. Once in the pits the team wheeled the car into the garage and set about changing the front suspension wishbone. This proved a costly failure for the French team as they slipped back to the foot of the running order.

After these early incidents the race was very much trouble-free for Creation. Slick, faultless pit stops from the crew coupled with the drivers maintaining an excellent pace with much discipline and consistency mean't for an excellent outcome. Despite the Pescarolo team's late charge it wasn't enough to close the 5 lap cushion. Ex-Creation driver Nic Minassian (France) and team mate Marc Gene (Spain) took race honours from their team mates (Pedro Lamy-Portugal / Stephane Sarrazin-France).

This event marked Creation's 3rd consecutive race away from home and in turn their 3rd podium finish in a row. This one was special however. The team proved their worth with a new car, still under development in the ALMS races, and importantly proved consistent reliability, pace and discipline to be the 'best' of the LMP1 petrol cars, in the Le Mans Series.

Mil Milhas race, Sao Paulo, Brazil

After a hectic final qualifying session yesterday afternoon, Briton's Jamie Campbell-Walter wrestled the Soto-Alto backed Creation CA07-Judd P1 to a fine 3rd place on the starting grid, just a half second ahead of the Playstation Pescarolo-Judd P1. Raceday weather is expected to be in the low 70's with cloud cover and a chance of showers at some point during the day.

The race will be broadcast on www.lmes.net tomorrow via live-feed and viewers in Europe can see the coverage also via television, through Motors TV, Nuvolari Tv, Galaxie Sport and 7 Russia TV. The 374 lap 12 hour race starts at 12 noon local time (9am EST, 2pm GMT), finishing at 11pm local.