The New York Times reports that security researchers and hackers have already found serious flaws in Vista. So far, Vista has only been released to some corporate customers and not yet to the general public.

On December 15, a Russian programmer revealed a flaw that makes it possible increase a user’s privileges. Since Vista’s greatest improvements in security involve having users run under accounts with restricted privileges for security reasons, it is a major blow. Later, a Silicon Valley security firm discovered five additional flaws, one in Windows Internet Explorer 7.

Being that the company still has some time, hopefully it will be able to roll out an update repairing these flaws. Microsoft is counting on Vista to be a moneymaker for them. We’ve commented on its lack of significant impact…although like everyone, we’ll eventually have to give in and buy it as support for XP is eventually discontinued.

Lifehacker recently gave us the idea of discussing battery backup. Uninterruptible Power Supplies, or UPSes, are battery-backup power strips. There is no reason why your computers and your electronics should not be on these devices, especially if you are in an area that suffers from brownouts, blackouts, and other power related issues.
The higher quality models include a feature called Automatic Voltage Regulation(AVR)…with it, the battery feeds all power to the system, which gives your electronics a constantly clean and regulated voltage. The cheaper ones will switch over to battery power only during a power failure. This is a nice addition to the good idea that you should surge protect all electronics. A UPS provides an extra layer of protection.

If you choose to go only with surge protection..do not skimp on it though. Make sure you get high quality components. For a UPS, the best known brand has always been APC. Their stuff is rather expensive though. For a bit more economy, go with Belkin. Make sure that it comes with a data cable and software to allow your computer to shut down neatly when it runs low on power.
We’ve tried some generic brands. We have a black rectangle burned into a pressboard desk from an Energizer UPS we bought after the big Northeast blackout that went kaput one weekend while we were away. Coming home to discover a melted UPS is rather scary. Independent reviews are a good way to weed out the poor quality ones.

All models are rated in VA. The higher the VA, the longer it will last. The estimates on the box are usually for computers, but we recommend you hook it up to other things. For example, we have an independent UPS hooked into our DSL modem and router assembly. Being that it draws much less power than a computer, it means our network will work for a good while in a power failure. If you have cordless phones, hooking them in may also be a good idea if you have a spare outlet on the UPS.

The best way to plan to upgrade your home with a series of Uninterruptable Power Supplies is to see what you want to keep running or allow to shutdown gracefully during a blackout and plan accordingly. For example, if you want to ensure your Digital Video Recorder(let’s say Tivo, for example), continues to record…you will need to have it plugged in. If it is hooked into a cable box, that will need power as well(assuming the cable or satellite company hasn’t lost power too).

Don’t forget that any appliance with a motor should not be plugged into a UPS(at least on the battery powered side). Those devices require a large burst of power.

Writing about this puts us in the mind to review our surge protection and UPS plans for our residence. Better safe than sorry.