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For all of you that found your way here, please re-bookmark our new portal located HERE
 News source: x64bit.net
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June 15, 2007 (Computerworld) -- The mystery of Vista's Lilliputian faces likely piqued your curiosity because it was...well, weird. A photograph too tiny to see, of three smiling guys, embedded in the Vista installation DVD? What's next, a microdot to dot the "i" in Microsoft? It sounded like an urban legend.
Actually, it's not the strangest thing Microsoft's done to combat counterfeiters and pirates. As the world's largest software maker, the Redmond Wash. company has also been in the forefront of anti-piracy measure. And sometimes the front of the line is...well, weird. So, in a piratanical spirit -- that's half pirate, half puritan -- we offer these treasures.
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Websense has discovered a new crimeware technique on the YouTube video clips website. When viewed, clips on the site activate a Trojan Horse via a file called "YouTube04567", which is then downloaded onto the user’s PC. The payload code is an information stealing Trojan Horse which is designed to grab information from the user’s PC. It then uploads any sensitive information from the user’s PC to an undisclosed remote location.
"Although Websense has captured this code on the web, it is highly likely that there are still emails and/or instant messages spreading malicious YouTube URLs in the wild," said Websense. Websense has created a video of the code in action, and has posted it onto the YouTube website in order for users to better understand the nature of the attack.
News source: MSFN
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Ever have sooo many visitors you eventually get tired of opening that front door? (Storm)
Well fret no more. The guys over at Hack A Day have come up with the Nuel Knock response automatic door opener
The system listens for a particular pattern of knocks speakeasy style and triggers a decidedly low-tech unlock mechanism when you enter the right knock-code -- it winds a rubber band around the lock handle. We're not certain if we buy the backstory here (what happens when the landlord sees a giant motor gaffer-taped to the inside of the door?) but the idea is pretty sweet. What next, an "Automatic Dishwasher? 
Take a LOOK HERE
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Only took 'em a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally taking a bit more of a proactive approach to its perennial "ring of death" problems of overheating 360s. Yeah, that means instead just doing the towel trick to get your 360 up and running again, you can send your Xbox off to Microsoft, and they'll actually improve the cooling internals -- in some countries anyways. MaxConsole had been getting some reports of French Xbox 360s getting this special treatment, and now they've got the first solid proof from Czech reader Ikari. We're no cooling experts, but it sure looks fancy in there!
News source: Engadget
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According to this Doom9 report, it looks like Sony has been responsible for the takedown of RipIt4Me and FixVTS. Going by the documentation available online, Sony filed a copyright lawsuit against Digital Digest on March, followed by a court granting a search warrant 3 days later. The search looked for info on its use, users and development, including the circumvention of Sony's ArccOS DVD corruption mechanism.
Another court order on the 30th of March looked for info on the development of Ripit4Me and for activity info of anyone involved in the development by going through items seized at blutach's residence. A final order from May 3rd has effectively prohibited the Digital Digest admin from providing support for any website involved in helping users to copy DVDs, thus leading to the removal of its DVD backup forums.
It looks like once BD+ gets put into wide use on Blu-ray, it is going to be a tough nut to get around, since not only is the protection designed to be replaceable should it become beaten, each person who manages to circumvent a version is at very high risk of ending up with a lawsuit on their hands.
News source: cdfreaks
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For those holding back for HD players to tumble in price, it looks like there is potential for a price war to start between Toshiba and Sony with both expecting to launch lower cost players over the coming few weeks. While Blu-ray is doing well as a result of the PS3, when it comes to dedicated high definition set-top players, HD DVD account for 60% of this market. Going by the US HD DVD promotional group, the entry level price for HD DVD players has hit $299 and HD DVD title sales have reached an all time high in May with over 75,000 HD DVD titles sold in the last week of May alone.
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When Microsoft announced the Surface computer weeks ago, anti-Microsoft trolls were quick to frame Microsoft as uninnovative and a copycat. Their arguments included several examples of prior touch computing interfaces including the practical and modest desk shown in the blockbuster movie, “The Island” directed by Michael Bay. Well as it turns out, the interactive desk used by Dr. Merrick was actually a Surface computer, all the way back in 2005.
See the Klip HERE
News source: Bink
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June 12, Microsoft will make available for download the Release Candidate (RC) near-final test build of Windows Home Server.
The final Home Server RC1 code will be available on the Microsoft Connect site later today.
According to Microsoft, there are currently more than 100,000 Windows Home Server beta registrants. As of the RC build, Microsoft is making the Windows Home Server code available to any existing or future beta-program participant.
Windows Home Server is designed to act as a central hub for storage of music, photos, and other files. It will include automatic backup and restore, as well as remote file-access capabilities.
New to the RC1 Home Server update are various bug fixes, improved remote access capabilities, and further streamlined ease-of-use setup process for WHS hardware.
Microsoft announced in mid-May that the first Windows Home Server systems will be available this fall from Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, consumer storage vendor LaCie and Medion International. Microsoft also is making the Home Server code available to system builders who will be authorized to build customized Home Server systems.
ZDnet
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NORFOLK, Va. — A small Virginia company in a patent fight with eBay Inc. asked a federal judge Tuesday to stop the online auction powerhouse from using its "Buy It Now" feature allowing shoppers to buy items at a fixed price.
A federal jury found in 2003 that eBay had infringed Great Falls-based MercExchange LLC's patent. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to patent-reform advocates when it ruled that MercExchange was not automatically entitled to a court order blocking the offending service.
Now, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Friedman must decide whether MercExchange is entitled to a permanent injunction. The judge did not say when he would rule.
Friedman also did not immediately rule on eBay's request to stay the proceedings until the federal patent office has completed a re-examination of the patent — a process that MercExchange's lawyers said could take 10 years.
Lawyers for San Jose-based eBay told the judge that the company has designed a workaround so that it no longer infringes on the patent and thus an injunction is unnecessary.
Attorney Jeff Randall also said MercExchange has not suffered irreparable harm and that the company is better off now than it was before the trial, citing an investment by a hedge fund
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Kingston has become the first DRAM module manufacturer to announce pricing for DDR3 modules -- and, not surprisingly, they're terrifically expensive.
According to a Kingston price list provided to ExtremeTech at the Computex show here, a 2-Gbyte stick of DDR3 memory costs between $443 and $708, depending upon the speed of the memory. The prices are manufacturer suggested retail prices, so actual prices will be a bit lower, a Kingston representative said.
Module makers have been reluctant to answer questions about DDR3 modules, even though several have announced products or product plans. A PNY sales executive said that the company would announce DDR3 pricing after the show, while representatives from Apacer and Nanya declined to disclose their prices.
nalysts have said that they expect the market to cross over from DDR2 to DDR3 in mid-2009; Kingsto expects that to happen a bit sooner, although it will be largely dependent on the choice PC OEMs make for their memory, Kingston representatives said. For now, however, the novelty of DDR3 roughly commands between an 85 percent and a 195 percent markup over DDR2, depending upon the speed of the chips.
Currently, Kingston has a total of eight products listed, in both 1,100-MHz and 1,066-MHz speeds. In the 1,100 range, the 2-GB stick (KHX11000D3LLK2) is listed at $518, while the 1-GB model is listed at $268, with another 1-GB version at $259. A 512-Mbyte stick of 1,100-MHz DDR3 memory is $134.
Consumers purchasing the slightly slower 1,066-MHz speed grade will receive a slight discount, but not much. The 2-Gbyte version will cost $443, while the 1-Gbyte version will cost $228. A 512-Mbyte stick will cost $187.
Kingston also provides a non-overclocked 1,333-MHz version, according to David Leong, a Kingston spokesman. There, a 2-Gbyte stick (KVR1333D3N8K2) will cost $708, while a 1-Gbyte stick will cost $373, and a 512-Mbyte stick, $187.
By comparison, Kingston's DDR-2 memory typically costs around $240 to $245, with only the low-latency KHX6400D2LLK priced at $368.
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Mozilla has released Firefox 3 Alpha 5. Keep in mind, when we say alpha, we mean this thing hasn't even earned the right to be called beta software yet, so install at your own risk. For example, when you install Firefox 3 (code named Gran Paradiso), you'll notice that clicking on your Firefox 2 icon will bring up Gran Paradiso whether you like it or not.
Gran Paradiso doesn't actually uninstall Firefox 2.0 though, so you can install Gran Paradiso and uninstall it with minimal risk. Except there's a chance you might lose some bookmarks. That's because the biggest change in the latest build is that Mozilla has added "Places," a new way of managing bookmarks, RSS subscriptions, and browser history in your sidebar.
Places first showed up in Firefox 2 Alpha 1, but has been disabled for the last few builds. It makes its triumphent return with Alpha 5, but you probably won't really notice any changes, since there's no graphical redesign to go along with the changes under the hood.
Some other updates:
* A new crash reporting system is enabled on Mac OS X and about half of Windows installations. It's not yet available for Linux.
* There's a new Javascript-based password manager.
* And some miscellaneous bug fixes in the new Gecko 1.9 rendering engine.
Get it HERE
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CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a leader in digital home solutions, has announced Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD movie playback software PowerDVD Ultra now supports the high-definition playback and content protection technologies of Intel's GMA 3000 series integrated graphics chipsets.
CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra, with its ability to deliver the exceptional image quality and performance required for enjoying high-definition movies on the PC, supports the following features from Intel:
Intel chipsets with GMA 3000 series integrated graphics along with Broadcom Media PC products provide a robust and secure path for high definition playback including Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD.
"The Intel® 3 series chipsets, featuring Intel's GMA 3100, X3100 or X3500 graphics, enable robust and cost-effective solutions that provide high-quality movie playback for standard and high-definition content, including Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs," said Richard Malinowski, Vice President & General Manager of Intel's Chipset Group. "PowerDVD Ultra's optimization for Intel's GMA 3100, X3100 and X3500 graphics, ensures exceptional performance, enabling users to enjoy high-definition movies on many mainstream mobile & desktop PCs moving forward."
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As most are already aware of, pretty much every music download service offering music from the major labels cripple purchased music downloads with DRM. However, what some may not realise is that most online streaming radio stations don't use any DRM, despite many playing hits from the major labels. As a result, there are a handful of stream rippers available which pipe the received stream into a file, which can be later broken up into individual MP3's.
Interestingly, Nero has started up a promotion where customers who buy Nero 7 Premium Reloaded in Europe, the Middle East and Africa get a free copy of Radiotracker Special Edition. This tool specialises in capturing radio streams and claims to scan over 14,000 of them, where consumers can build up an MP3 collection fairly rapidly, such as by leaving the tool run overnight.
While Radiotracker claims this to be fully legal for personal use, it makes me wonder what the music industry would think. On the other hand, radio-cassette recorders have been selling since the early days of cassette tapes and these did not prevent the consumers from taping music off the radio. However, after XM getting sued for allowing a player to record off its broadcasts and some other digital radio makers also running into legal issues for letting its customers record radio broadcasts, this may explain why Nero's offer does not appear to be open to the US.
News source: CDFreaks
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New beta builds of Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger (8.5) and Windows Live Writer (a blog-authoring service/tool) are available to testers for download as of May 30, according to Microsoft.
The next version of Windows Live Mail went to testers in nine markets today. The new version will integrate “features from OE (Outlook Express), Windows Mail AND Windows Live Mail desktop” (WLMd), according to an early May posting on the Windows Live Mail team blog.
* “New and improved UI: Cleaner design, and now with Aero support!
* Setup and account migration improvements: Smoother experience overall - you will now have fewer steps in order to get started with the client.
* More parity with OE and Windows Mail: S/MIME and LDAP support are just two of the features that we’ve been working on for WLM which will bring us more parity with our other free Mail clients.
* Performance and stability: The new product will be faster and more robust than WLMd.
* No Ads: Yes, it’s true – there will be no graphical ads in the WLM beta build.”
Read More
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Windows Server 2008, when it ships later this year, will include an installation option called “Server Core” that allows admins to set up a minimal environment to run a handful of roles.
At TechEd 2007 here in Orlando, Microsoft announced that it will be adding yet another admin-selectable role option to Server Core: Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7), Microsoft’s Web server.
“Customers will benefit from an extremely modular, low-footprint Web hosting platform on top of the already small Server Core,” Microsoft said in a press release explaining the addition. “Server Core is ideal for hosting the PHP scripting language and now runs 10 to 20 times faster than before as a result of improvements in IIS.”
News of the addition met with applause by some attendees of the morning kick-off keynote here at Microsoft’s IT pro show in Orlando.
News source: ZDNet
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YouTube announced a partnership with an independently-owned TV broadcast network yesterday that will enable five stations to begin monetizing their content online. The agreement with Hearst-Argyle Television will put local TV programming from five markets—Boston, Manchester, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore—onto dedicated channels on YouTube. The revenue sharing agreement is the first of such between YouTube and an independent TV station, according to the companies.
Terry Mackin, executive VP of Heart-Argyle Television, said in a statement that the deal fits with the company's overall strategy of distributing their localized content on TVs, PCs, and the Internet. "We have invested significant resources in our growing digital media efforts," he said. "With Google and YouTube, we can now better engage users and advertisers with our award-winning local video content and with new user-generated content while further broadening our reach beyond the boundaries of our media markets."
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µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients.
Features:
* Multiple simultaneous downloads
* Configurable bandwidth scheduler
* Global and per-torrent speed limiting
* Quick-resumes interrupted transfers
* RSS Downloader
* Trackerless support (Mainline DHT)
Changelog: [builds 2224, 2228 & 2248]
* Feature: allow > 65k pieces in the torrent creator (if piece size is >= 1mB)
* Feature: support > 65535 pieces (now 4294967295 is max )
* Change: don't turn off "check association on startup" if the user says no to the dialog (use the settings to turn it off)
* Change: Display an error dialog if the user types in an invalid path on a single file torrent for the "..." button
* Change: case insensitive hosts in flags.conf
* Change: RSS title parsing
* Change: Implement home, end, pageup, and pagedown selection with shift or control keys in the addtorrent dialog treeview
* Change: Some changes to make up, down, home, end, pageup, and pagedown keys in the addtorrent dialog treeview behave more like the old listview
* Change: uTorrent now no longer forks on uninstallation so it should correctly be removed from add/remove programs on windows 95 varieties
* Change: include all adapters in subnet search for local peers
* Change: consider peers in reserved local ranges as local peers
* Change: don't limit local peers by default
* Change: sort RSS release qualities
* Fix: fix duplication connection race condition
* Fix: in filenames, replace trailing spaces with underscores (since Windows does not allow it)
* Fix: repair settings files with duplicate entries (and log about it)
* Fix: rss.start_matches broken with certain settings
* Fix: Dump memory info crash on Vista
* Fix: Would end up not rate limiting local peers if already connected before discovery and they were not on the local subnet
* Fix: download rate limiting bug
* Fix: fix a bug with force recheck from 2224
 Download: uTorrent
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from the coming-to-a-consumer-near-you dept
Multi-touch technology is going mainstream. Researchers have been talking about the power of multi-touch technology for quite some time. It's often referred to as "Minority Report" technology, as a multi-touch interface was used by characters in the movie, but it's been around for much longer. It got another burst of attention last year thanks to Jeff Han's demo of a multi-touch screen at the TED conference. However, it's always been in the realm of science fiction or research departments until recently. Apple famously is using a multi-touch interface on the iPhone, and tonight Microsoft announced a multi-touch interface for its new Microsoft Surface products -- which are more along the lines of what Jeff Han demonstrated. Basically, it's large screen-focused systems for interacting with content using a multi-touch interface. It's not quite down to the consumer level yet, as it appears Microsoft's first customers are mainly for commercial kiosks. Actually, almost all of the original customers are casinos -- with the one exception being T-Mobile, who will use it as a kiosk for providing info on mobile phones. However, what's pretty clear is that big tech companies are adopting the multi-touch interface in a big way -- and that likely means that we'll start seeing it in many more areas, especially within consumer devices. This doesn't mean an end to the mouse and keyboard as core input devices -- but multi-touch certainly opens up a whole new way of interacting with computing devices that can make them much more useful in ways that simply weren't possible with just a mouse and keyboard.
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Microsoft is set to release not only Windows Server 2008, but also Windows XP Service Pack 3 later this year, according to a recent press release on Microsoft PressPass. It has been suspected in the past that Windows XP SP2 would end up as the final service pack released for the operating system, but apparently these suspicions can now be laid to rest.
This information came in conjunction with the announcement that Windows XP SP3 as well as Windows Vista will gain support for interoperability between Microsoft's Network Address Protection (NAP) and Juniper Network's Unified Access Control (UAC) standards for network access control (NAC) deployments.
The feature set for Windows XP Service Pack 3 is however still unannounced.
News source: Microsoft Presspass
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