New NetPing.

• Added multithreaded pinging, which is much faster than the old version. User can set number of threads used to 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25.
• Added ability to connect to host with Remote Desktop.
• Added ability to connect to host with Windows Computer Management.
• Added ability to get host's system information via systeminfo.exe, which is parsed and presented in HTML.

http://www.sliver.com/dotnet/netping [Jeff Key's .net blog]

Ah, I love new additions to my ever-growing and ever-productive C:/UTILS, which increasingly is filled with utilities written with and running in this funky new environment called .NET.  You know, I think MS might be on to something. ;)

Ari offers a tip to tortured souls removing ThreeDegrees on uninstalling Windows' IPv6 support.  Make sure you yank this interface before shutting down and uninstalling services:

netsh.exe interface ipv6 uninstall

How can anyone expect to market an OS to The Average Joe if this kind of incantation is always needed? Shouldn't IPv6 support for Windows XP be as easy to uninstall as IPv4 currently is? (uninstall from Network Properties)

I'm not sure if netsh.exe is necesssary if you use ipv6.exe...Here's the easiest way I could find to uninstall IPv6:

Q.		How do I uninstall the IPv6 Protocol for Windows XP?

A.

To remove the IPv6 Protocol for Windows XP: Log on to the Windows XP computer with a user account that has local administrator privileges. Open a command prompt. From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. At the command prompt, type: ipv6 uninstall

IPv6 is fabulous and wonderful and I'm looking forward to the day when we have enough IP addresses to proffer DHCP to all my light bulbs and my half empty box of Wheat Thins can call Albertson's and order more of themselves...but, wow...I really hope from the user's (my mom, for example) point of view that the transition is seemless...Apparently there's lots of problems with the plethora of IPv6toIPv4 services installed by 3Degrees.

Secondarily, I wanted to mention, now that I'm 29...I've relaized I'm not 25.  I'm not even 27.  I'm sure in the heck not 21.  As much as I'd like to think I'm a "dude," I'm not.  I've been a "sir" at Blockbuster for at least the last three years.  At the club, I'm the old guy at the club. Not too old, just a little too old to be at the club.   That said, hip teenagers can spot "not-hip old guys" a MILE AWAY, and no sprinkling of quasi-demi-semi-half-hip words like "lowdown" and "fo' sheezy" will get kids flocking to ThreeDegrees.   You just can't market hip.  If they smell an old guy (anyone >= 25) trying to market to them teens will bail.

That said, I'm watching the whole ThreeDegrees deal with rapt attention. Check out Yoz's take on ThreeDegrees.

An interesting article (here's the most interesting page) on how Windows Update uses POSTed SOAP to send information about your computer to Microsoft.  Since the data is SSLed you can't network sniff for details, so these guys hooked into WinInet's HttpOpenRequest() and InternetWriteFile() to check out the data before it's encrypted.  Interesante.

Personally I don't think that dumping a system inventory of installed hardware drivers, how much ram, etc is an invasion of privacy.  What I don't want happening is a listing of my installed non-OS software...I'd rather not have Windows Update informing me about updates to anything other that Windows. 

I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway...