Seems like us normal people can download XP Service Pack 3 by clicking here straight from Microsoft. This is the regular 32-bit English version. I got this tip from Lifehacker this morning. Download now and will update how it goes. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: Well so far so good. I haven’t received any errors in terms of usage as of yet. The update process to Service Pack 3 took a good 45mins. I don’t see any drastic changes yet but time will tell.

Lifehacker Gina Trapani wrote a nice article accumulating the top 10 Wi-Fi tips that can increase your signal range and make your wireless network secure. Tips include things like better router placement, extending your signal by using a repeater or a bridge, using  Wireshark to sniff your wireless network packets passing through, enabling WPA Encryption to make your network much more secure than using WEP, enabling MAC address filtering to restrict your wireless network even more, stop SSID (Network Name) broadcasting, using NetStumbler to detect other wireless networks with information about how secure they are and also for war-driving purposes, using portable routers share a wired connection in hotel rooms for instance, a nice youtube video showing how to use tinfoil to increase your signal range, and of course using DD-WRT Firmware to enhance your routers usability and adding more features making your $50 router into a $600 one. It also includes instructions on how to flash the firmware to your router.

Appupdater is a another program posted here at Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy that can be used to update your windows apps. It will be familiar to linux users as its command based. I have used this a couple of times and it works really nicely as it scans all the installed software and checks for updates and asks your permission before installing the updates.

Secunia is a freeware app which is Window only and helps keep applications on your system upto date and also notifies of obsolete apps. Its similar to windows update but much more powerful. Specially helpful if you have a lot of application on your system like I do. Posted at Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Lifehacker points to New York Times article with Bruce Schneier answering questions regarding your computer security.

Cool tip posted by a lifehacker reader and posted by Kyle Pott says to use the run dialog and type in the following command “shutdown -f -t 0″ which forced windows to kill all running processes without any user input requirement like that pesky End Now dialog and immediately shuts down your system.