Bcalutech

Site Review

2009-01-17T04:01:00.001+05:30

I am presenting all of you with Trendefy.com a new site which is providing you with good content all around and news to the fullest. You can take whatever you want. You want news Trendefy.com does have it .

You name it they have it.

New Sites to Look

2008-11-26T08:12:00.001+05:30

I have been browsing some of the websites/blogs lately and found out some of the blogs which have drastically changed them over this month or so. One of them is Get Netted , the domain is around 8 years and has excellent SERPS.

Last night I was looking on to it and found out that the latest post on the site about pagerank was on the google's first page in a flash i.e. it took less than one minute to get indexed in Google. One more thing about the site is that it is currently using a magazine theme which make's its out bounds considerably lesser than it could have been.

Now coming to another site, the other site is Larger Than Life which is doing very good in terms of it's rankings in Search Engines but not as good as Get Netted. According to Whois both the domains belong to same person. The current Pagerank of both the domains is 3 and 4 respectively. One more site to watch is The Business Blog which is not exactly a complete Business Blog but considerable amount of business related topics on the blog. You can find out credit card related queries, The Richest Indian and other things on the site.

25222

2008-06-16T09:29:00.002+05:30

Larger Than Life

Website Reviews

2008-03-29T08:47:00.001+05:30

Today a simple review of JohnyCow.com , JohnChow.com and Johncow.com. All are in the make money Online category and doing good. Since Feb12 Johnycow.com has not even bothered to update his blog , JohnChow.com has started talking about shit and JohnCow.com is spreading that shit.

So , would you like to spread that shit, I think that spreading that shit would not be a great idea of making money online and all the other things so get ahead and move along with the time.

Plasma Television

2007-10-03T10:36:00.000+05:30

Plasma Television , what is this ? I never knew till two years ago . One day I was surfing the net and then I came across an advertisement which was about a plasma television which I was unable to understand as I have never seen any of such kind of TV's . Then I asked one of my friends who had keen knowledge about all these topics like electronics and such topics. He told me that

"A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display now commonly used for large TV displays (typically above 37-inch or 940 mm). Many tiny cells located between two panels of glass hold an inert mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon). The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which then excites phosphors to emit light."

Just Like the Image show here is a Plasma Television which is Pioneer Flat Panel Tv :PDP-6070HD Flat Panel

An Image of The Display Composition of Plasma television.

Well you can see more details of this PDP-6070HD Flat Panel Television .

If you are looking for a Television and having a budget of around $4000 then do not go anywhere else but just go with this PDP-6070HD Flat Panel Television .

While if you have a variable budget then you must visit here for the price range of Televisions and other electronics as well.

Free PR 5 Links

2007-09-21T01:55:00.000+05:30

Hi , I have got a site which is offering PR5 links for free , you have to just do one thing just post a link to this site named as The Truth of My Life . I gave this site a link , so now its my turn to get the PR5 link , Hey now what I will get that link to this blog very soon may be in one or 2 days . Your Turn to get it freee.

The Review Blog Contest

2007-07-21T20:43:00.000+05:30

The Review Blog is holding a Review Contest . Anybody is invited who can write an honest review of his blog. He will give away $50 to who so ever wins by Paypal.

This is the saying from the The Review Blog which is holding a $50 Contest for the best review . Hope the best one wins.

From $0 to $3,387.24.

2007-07-12T08:31:00.000+05:30

At one time when i started my blog way back in September i was not sure whether this blog will run or not and whether this blog will pay me anything but with the advent of time i realised that most of the blogs started after my blog have even crossed a mark of $1000 per month income , then i got a domain and started blogging there and that blog even went higher its just three months there and my blog's value is estimated at around $13000 . This makes me satisfied and also makes me to do more things in my blog as well.

This does not mean that i will not care about this blog , NO ......
I will continue to do posts in this blog because this is my first blog which made me my first blogging income way back in starting of the year . This is now the scene that my blog bcalutech.blogspot.com is now having a technorati authority of 6 with just over 8lakh ranking . I will continue to post various items in the blog very soon .
Till then enjoy this blog.

Video Conferencing

2007-07-12T07:26:00.000+05:30

In today's world when people have to travel to far off places for business meetings and presentations Video Conferencing has become a necessity .
Do you want to keep in touch with employees, business contacts or clients? MegaMeeting's video and web conferencing services make it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world to log on and participate in your Internet meeting . The service works on any operating system, Mac, Windows or Linux, and users can take part even if their computers are protected by a firewall.

Host Webinars With Easy to use, yet Powerful Webinar Software

The uses of MegaMeeting's web and desktop video conferencing systems are limited only by your imagination. Companies are presently using MegaMeeting's services to hold internet meetings (videoconferencing), demonstrate their products and services to potential clients, conduct staff training sessions and even perform after-sales servicing of their products and software (by using remote desktop control software).

Educational, social and religious organizations are using MegaMeeting's webinar server to connect with students and members at a distance. Many organizations are using the webinar hosting features to conduct virtual, web based meetings and seminars.

It comes in four options Personal , Professional,Enterprise , Enterprise Private Branding .
These all comes with unlimited bandwidth for your needs.
To try the free options available you can click any button below.
Personal Webinar
Professional,Enterprise,Private Branding
Visit the sponsor so that you may be able to get most out of the internet for your business and also your profits will increase or maximize . Guranteed.

Factors you have to consider before starting a Blog - Blogging Tips

2007-06-26T15:30:00.001+05:30

I made a list of some factors you should consider before going to start a blog. You should check them if you don’t have a specific topic in mind to write about. It is quite possible that you have so many unique talents that no particular talent is singled out in your mind. So, how [...]

Read More...

[Source: Linkrain Articles - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Vira Links

2007-06-23T11:57:00.001+05:30

Join it Now and you will have a increase in your Technorati Rankings.

=======Copy and Paste below this line========

Instructions:
1. ) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe.

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

Host Tag: The Review Blog

Important: Once I get a ping back from you, I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copy and paste from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

====== Copy and Paste from Above this line=====

Ok now just copy the above and if this works any where close to Viralink you will not be unimpressed with the results I assure you!.

Philips Unveils 1 TB External HDD

2007-06-12T00:39:00.000+05:30

Digital pictures, music files or videos - all ever more fixed disk requires for. Goods so far sizes within the three-figure GB-range custom, come now slowly however surely ever more devices on the market, which a Terabyte capacity offers. So far only as solutions with two non removable disks available, Philips with the SPD5130 now a model presented, which in such a manner offers much storage location on a disk.

Philips which is better known for its TVs and high-end audio equipment has just introduced a new external hard drive, the SPD5130, at Computex 07, that offers 1TB of storage capacity and is built on the eSATA interface.
The SPD5130 is equipped with a USB-2.0-Schnittstelle, which is suitable for filling the equipment however only conditionally.The drive according to Philips’s website will include a thick aluminum shock-proof case, 32 MB buffer for speedy performance, 1 touch backup functionality and a heat control system. Baking UP procedures can be started over a Button at the non removable disk, “Safe shutdown” - key is to prevent overrun.
The noncommittal price recommendation for the SPD5130 amounts to 449 Euro.

Original Article{German Language } Here
{English Translated Article Here }

Canon Powershot A570IS Review.

2007-06-11T23:37:00.000+05:30

Image Stabilization is the most important aspect in any camera which we are going to use . Let me first tell you all about Image stabilization .
*****************************************************************
Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques to increase the stability of an image. It is used in image-stabilized binoculars, photography, videography, and astronomical telescopes. With still cameras, camera shake is particularly problematic at slow shutter speeds or with long focal length (telephoto) lenses. With video cameras, camera shake causes visible frame-to-frame jitter in the recorded video. In astronomy, the problems of lens-shake are compounded by variations in the atmosphere over time, which cause the apparent position of objects to move.

In short i must say that image stabilization is techniques in which if your camera is moving or image is moving then you don't have to worry about the image , the image will be perfect .
Ok Now to the topic . Back to Review.

Build of The Camera

A little bulky but elegant is what I would label the A570IS as. Though the design standards stay similar in the whole of Canon's A500 series of digicams, the A570IS looks the classiest of the bunch. This would probably be because of the metallic parts that make an appearance in the otherwise plastic body, and the use of dark shades of gray for the text and the handgrip.

The build quality, overall, is quite sturdy and built to last. The buttons feel firm yet responsive, which is the way it should be.
The top of the A570 consists of the power and shutter release buttons, along with a mode dial. The shutter release button has a ring toggle switch for zooming in and out. I personally find that a lot more convenient than having a switch at the back of the camera for zooming. The mode dial allows you to select between basic shooting modes like portrait, landscape, etc. along with a scene mode where you can select something more specific. You also have a range of manual modes like, well, Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, etc. Even the video shooting mode can be accessed via this dial.

The back of the camera contains the rest of the controls, along with a 2.5 inch LCD display that works pretty well under most lighting conditions. Even when shooting in bright sunlight, the image on the display was clearly visible. The part I really appreciate about this series of cameras is that they come with an optical viewfinder option. It may seem redundant when you have such a nice LCD display, but when you're trying to save the little juice you have in your batteries, shutting down the LCD can really help.

This is like most of the cameras contains i.e. Digital Cameras contains.

Features :
High Image Quality
•7.1 megapixel CCD for high-resolution images.
•Retractable 4x optical zoom with 4x digital zoom.
•High ISO 1600 reduces camera shake and blurring of fast-moving subjects even in low-light condition.
•Night Display function automatically brightens the subject on LCD to improve visibility.
•Powered by Canon proprietary DIGIC III Imaging Processor for high-definition images with natural colour reproduction and razor sharp clarity at accelerated processing speed, even under high ISO shooting.
•Optical Zoom Viewfinder saves battery life and focus better in dark condition and bright sunlight.

Face Detection Technology
• Incorporates the Face Detection AF, Face Detection AE and Face Detection FE, which work hand-in-hand to capture stunning photos of subjects’ faces with sharpness and right exposure easily.

Face Detection AF: Detects as many as 9 subjects’ faces in a picture. If no faces are detected the AF system automatically switched to the conventional 9-point AiAF setting.

Face Detection AE: Focus and exposure are controlled and set correctly for capturing the human face so that the subject’s best expression is not missed.

Face Detection FE: Flash brightness and exposure automatically adjusted to ideal levels

Enables Red eye correction during playback

NEW ISO 1600
•Makes sure fast moving subjects stay sharp and camera shake eliminated
•Avoid blurry subjects when shooting in dark areas

Point & Shoot Simplicity
•9-point AiAF (auto-focusing) or single point AF (fixed to center) ensures the subject is sharply focused even if it is not in the center.
•10 shooting modes including 10 special scene modes. The Special Scene modes are pre programmed camera settings for specific shooting conditions: Fireworks, Snow, Beach, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot, Foliage, Underwater, Aquarium, Night Scene
• Vertical/ Horizontal Gridline Display for easy photo composition and framing.
•Stitch Assist to piece images together seamlessly to create wide panoramic landscapes.
My Colors Function
•Freely retouch color of still images and movies on the camera during shooting.
•Real-time color change on LCD monitor while shooting, hence saving the time and hassle of retouching via computer.
•Integrated with Photo Effect including:
Vivid
Neutral
Sepia
Black & White

Shooting Preferences
•Shooting Instants increases shutter speed to a maximum of 1/2000th of a second
•Shooting in 3 dimensions focus on what is in front of the camera, or for a sharp focus overall effect
•Powerful zoom for users to zoom in even more closely to subjects without having to use a tele-converter attachment, thanks to the Digital Tele-converter function.
•Steady Shots with Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) to ensure sharp and clear images when shooting without a tripod.

Image Playback Modes
•With Auto Rotate function, images will be displayed and oriented correctly during playback, regardless when taken with camera held vertically or horizontally.
•Resume Playback safely turn off the power or remove memory card and still resume playback from where the last viewed image was left off.
•Easy location and management of images through enhanced Jump function with jump searches:
Jump 10 images: Shows every tenth image
Jump 100 images: Shows every hundredth image
Jump shot date: Shows image taken at shooting date.
Jump to movie: Displays movie only.
Jump to folder: Goes to folder where image is stored.

Connectivity
•High speed USB 2.0 transfer rate
•Direct connectivity and transfer to both Windows (Windows 98 SE and above) & Mac (Mac OS X v10.1.5 and above) computers.

Shoot and Print/Transfer Direct
•Print photos directly from Canon direct photo printers and any PictBridge compliant printer without PC.
•Easy print and transfer of images with just a touch of the Print/Share button.
•Exif 2.2 compliant for greater colour fidelity when printing to EXIF compatible printers.

More Printing Options (to CP printers)
•ID Photo Print - crop images to passport size for direct printing.
•Movie Print - print a single or series of selected frames from movie footage.
Movie Print – Single
•Only a single selected frame is printed in a single sheet.
•When connected to a Canon CP direct or a Pictbridge connection.
Movie Print – Sequence
•A sequence of selected images is printed in a single sheet.
•When connected to a Canon CP direct connection.

Optional Accessories
•New Conversion Lens Adapter (LA-DC52G)
•New waterproof case (WP-DC12)
•Tele-converter 1.75x (TC-DC52A)
•Wide Converter 0.7x (WC-DC52)
•Close-up lens 52mm (250D)
•High-Power Flash (HF-DC1)

Sample Images By This camera

Beware that the Original image is a large one , before opening the original image Note down these Image Specifications:
* File Size: 4638 KB
* Recording Pixels: 3648 x 2736
* Compression: Superfine
* Shooting Mode: Av
* Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec.
* Aperture Value: f/5.6
* ISO Speed: 80
* Exp. Compensation: +2/3
* White Balance: Manual

Final Words :
All the speeds were pretty much top notch. The camera shot at around 1.7 FPS in burst mode, which is fast by any consumer model standards. The start-up to shot and shot-to-shot times were also minimal just the way its meant to be.
Canon has tried to cheat its way in the night portrait mode. To avoid image blurring when shooting without flash, it spikes up the ISO sensitivity levels, which results in high amounts of digital noise. But there's always an option of shooting in manual mode using a lower ISO level and higher exposure settings to get the perfect low-light shot like the one below.
he battery life was pretty good too. A pair of alkaline batteries can last for around 50 shots, some with flash and some without.
Conclusion
Anyway you look at it, the A570 is an excellent camera. It fills all the missing gaps in the lesser models to make a very strong mid-range camera. Though I personally think that the MRP of Rs. 16,990 is kind of an overkill, I think at the street price of Rs. 15,300 it's well worth it. Perfect for home usage as well as a user who wants to learn more about taking better pictures without shelling big bucks.

Back To Work

2007-06-11T23:35:00.000+05:30

Hi Guys , I was pretty busy with my examinations so that i was not able to continue and now that i am back in action with full force and will continue to write articles and more items so that most of you guys can get what you want.

From Now onwards i will be doing reviews and then posting everything that i can get from softwares and websites and other on this blog itself .
No More technical Blog , even though technology will be my first priority but all other items will also be present in it .

Yahoo linked to $1 Billion bid for Bebo

2007-05-21T01:48:00.000+05:30

Yahoo is reportedly preparing a takeover bid for social networking site Bebo.

According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, Yahoo is prepared to pay up to $1bn for the MySpace rival.

Bebo was founded by husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch in 2005, and has overtaken MySpace in the UK as the most popular social networking site. On a global basis, MySpace is still around four times the size of Bebo.

Yahoo has already shown its keenness to break into the social networking market with a bid to buy out Facebook last year, also for $1bn, which fell through.

It is rumoured that Bebo turned down a £300m offer from BT and a similar bid from Viacom last year, and Michael Birch has said in the past that he would rather float Bebo than sell it.

However, industry analysts believe that the current flood of internet deals could encourage Bebo to accept Yahoo's offer.Bebo is going from strength to strength and has around 25 million registered users.

The company has recently hired Angel Gambino, former vice president of commercial, strategy and digital at MTV, as vice president of music, and Joanna Shields, former Google EMEA managing director of strategic partnerships, as international president.

Yahoo declined to comment on what it refers to as "industry rumours".

Microsoft Testing Multiple Searches on One Page

2007-05-19T01:52:00.000+05:30

It seems Google isn’t the only one that has decided to redirect a handful of users to test a different approach to web search. Microsoft is redirecting a small number of random users who use Windows Live Search to search.imagine-live.com, a search engine that puts results from a number of Live searches on a single page. When searching for something, the user will be shown the typical results from the web as well as image results, maps results, news results, links to movie listings, weather, and so on. Hitting “view more results” or “explore more” will take the user to the corresponding search engine or web site. The site is obviously still in development as sometimes the search engine spits out an error about not being able to find anything.

Hong Kong man loses appeal in internet piracy case

2007-05-19T01:51:00.000+05:30

A Hong Kong man convicted of sharing pirated movies lost his final appeal on Friday in the territory's highest court and will now have to finish serving a three-month prison sentence.

Chan Nai-ming, 38, who used the screen name "Big Crook," is believed to be the first person to receive jail time for distributing movie files using BitTorrent file-sharing technology.

He was originally charged in April 2005 for copyright infringement after uploading and distributing three Hollywood movies — Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality.

He was sentenced in November 2005 and had served several weeks in prison before filing a series of appeals.

Chan's lawyer argued before the Court of Final Appeal that he only uploaded the movies and did not distribute them, but the court dismissed the distinction.

"He plainly succeeded in distributing copies of the films in question," the court said in its judgment. "The appeal must accordingly be dismissed."

Tam Yiu-keung, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Excise, told the Xinhua news agency the ruling "will generate a strong deterrent effect on internet piracy activities."

The Hong Kong government said Chan's conviction was a milestone in the fight against illegal online sharing of intellectual property and that since his arrest illegal file-sharing had fallen by 80 per cent.

BitTorrent software is a "peer-to-peer" program that works by allowing high-speed downloads from multiple sources, each supplying a small part of the whole.

When anyone uploads a file, it becomes a source for others on the internet. Thus, locating those who upload or download material can be a difficult and complicated process, industry observers said.

Earlier this year the makers of the technology — San Francisco-based BitTorrent Inc. — announced they were launching a website that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios.

The move came two years after another file-sharing website, Grokster, was shut down as part of a court settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Hollywood studios could pursue companies who allow customers to download illegally.

Sony's Announces Tiny High-Def Camcorder

2007-05-03T07:58:00.000+05:30

Sony Corp. has announced its smallest high-definition camcorder to date.

The HDR-CX7, which is due to go on sale in June, records 1080i high-definition video directly to a MemoryStick Pro Duo card. Until now its camcorders have relied on MiniDV tape, DVD discs or hard-disk drives to store video, but the memory card slot and associated electronic take up less space and mean a smaller, lighter camera.

Using a memory card also means that getting video into a PC is as easy as removing the card from the camera and slotting it into a card reader. The video must still be copied to the PC's hard-disk for viewing, but a software upgrade due mid-year will make it possible to watch video directly from high-speed Pro Duo- or Pro HG-type MemoryStick cards on both a PC and the PlayStation 3.

The flash memory-based recording also helps reduce power consumption and noise over other methods. But it doesn't come without disadvantages. Memory cards are quite expensive, and users will be able to store only about 30 minutes of video on a 4G-byte card in the camera's highest quality mode.

Behind the lens is a 3-megapixel image sensor, and the camera can also capture 6-megapixel still images, Sony said. Other features include a 10x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch wide-screen, touch-sensitive LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.

The CX7 weighs 450 grams and measures 69 millimeters by 67mm by 129mm. It will cost about US$1,200 in the U.S.

Sony will also begin selling two hard-disk drive-based HD camcorders in June. The HDR-SR7 has a 60G-byte drive and the HDR-SR5 a 40G-byte drive. The SR7 comes with the same 3-megapixel image sensor used in the CX7, while the SR5 uses a 2-megapixel sensor. In the U.S. the cameras will cost $1,400 and $1,100, respectively. Prices and launch dates for other markets have not been announced.

All three camcorders record in the AVCHD format, which was developed by Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) and uses MPEG4 compression.

On Thursday Sony also announced an update to its Vegas 7 video editing software that adds support for AVCHD files. An upgrade for the consumer "Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition 8" software, adding AVCHD support, will be available from July, Sony said.

Memory Prices Set to Hit the Bottom in the 2H '07

2007-05-03T07:55:00.000+05:30

After tumbling for more than four consecutive months, prices on dynamic random access memory (DRAM) may sustain rapid decrease in the coming months, causing memory chip makers to continue losing money. Nevertheless, as the demand towards computers increases in the second half of the year, towards back-to-school season, the prices may start to rebound, according to DRAMeXchange.

Price of one 512Mb DDR2 PC2-5300 (667MHz) chip has decreased by 53% in the last twelve months from $5.21 to $2.37, which is not really negative for large DRAM manufacturers as they continually implement new manufacturing technologies and, considering that prices remained pretty high till mid-December, 2006, hardly anyone suffered from changing pricing in 2006. However, starting 2007 memory pricing has been tumbling rapidly and may soon hit the bottom.

The persisting price declines have pushed DRAM makers to the verge of losing money. Migrating to more advanced fabrication processors, and boosting shipments of 1Gb chips will be two key factors in deciding how the respective DRAM makers perform in the second half of the year, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange.

The current declines in the DRAM contract price have been much bigger than originally expected, the research firm claims. This has been mainly attributed to the weak seasonality in the PC market, and huge imbalance in the demand and supply chain. DRAM makers have been forced to sell their chips at particularly low prices, as their monthly capacities continue to enhance. However, with the inventory levels of PC makers now running lower and seasonally weak second quarter coming to its end, DRAM demand may start to pick up, which will result in memory pricing rebound.

Computer hardware developers tend to start shipping new hardware to PC manufacturers starting in mid-June so that the latter could prepare new systems for the back-to-school season. The increase in demand towards hardware in overall will indisputably cause memory price increase.

The ongoing price declines are dragging DRAM makers to the brink of losing money. In response, manufacturers are trying earnestly to further cut down costs, notes DRAMeXchange. For instance, Micron recently announced the successful development of the 1.5V DDR2 chip using the 78 nm manufacturing process. The smaller voltage is capable of saving approximately 24% of power. As Micron owns a larger ratio of the less cost-effective 200mm fabs, it is introducing chips with special specifications, in order to avoid the fierce price competition in the commodity DRAM market. For Samsung and Hynix, they have begun to run test trials using the 68nm and 66nm process, along with increasing the shipment ratio of 1Gb chips for 2H07. On the other hand, Taiwan manufacturers are continuing to boost the capacity of their 300” fabs. Needless to say, amid the rapid capacity increase, the cost down mechanisms being introduced by the DRAM manufacturers will play an instrumental role in their future competitiveness.

Microsoft Windows Server Code Name Longhorn Beta 3

2007-05-03T07:11:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" helps you to increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements allow you to have more control over your servers while providing advanced protection so you can spend less time on everyday tasks and more time bringing greater value to your organization.

wsl_6001.16510.070417-1740_x86fre_server-KB3SFRE_EN_DVD.iso

1804.3 MB

Download Link

New Features in IIS 7 Beta 3

2007-04-27T07:52:00.000+05:30

Beta 3 was just signed off and will be posted very soon to connect.microsoft.com.

There is so much coolness in IIS 7 in Beta 3 that's hard to know where to start.

We've had several customers beating up this build pretty hard, including Microsoft.com. This is a good build for the web server platform (can't speak about the rest of it cause I don't know, but from the looks of things, it's all good).

What to look for in IIS7 Beta 3:

Of course, you've heard all about the modular pipeline. Right? what! Snap out of it! This is a big deal.

Shared configuration: You can now configure multiple IIS 7 servers to share a single application host config file. Whohoo! No more metabase replication.

Remote Administration: This is coolness in action. Use https from within IIS manager to connect to another IIS manager. Since it's https, it's firewall friendly and not special ports need to be open. You authenticate to the remote IIS manager using Windows users, or you can define users in the IIS manger that are stored in Administration.config (encrypted credentials of course)

Disable Anon user: So if you disable the anon user in IIS7, anon access is still allowed, but you don't use the built in IUSR account. All anon access occurs as the process identity. If you give each process a unique identity, you also give it a uniqu anon users when this is enabled. Add sandoxing and shared config, and you have a nice package for web farms with secure pools.

App Pool Sandbox: This takes a while to explain, but essentially, each pool winds up with a configuration file that contains only the settings for that pool and can only be read by that pool. In this way, an applicaiton pool cannot revert to self and read the configuration of any other pool.

Extensible UI: The UI is not just new from IIS6, it's a platform in and of itself that can be modifed and updated. Look to Carlos' blog and the downloads page on IIS.net for new extensions that are already available. http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1328

Are you ready for this: New FTP server! released at the same time as beta 3 is a long awaited new FTP server AND yes, it support FTP with SSL (FTPS as I recall as opposed to SFTP). You will find this as a seperate donwload on IIS.net soon. It is not built into longhorn. When you install this puppy you will see first hand how that we aren't kidding about IIS 7 extensiblity. There will be new UI icons and configuration features. In the past, this is something that only Microsoft or a few ISVs would do (modify the UI and IIS configuration), but since the UI is a Winform app extensiblity built in, and the IIS 7 schema can be extended with just an XML snippet - developers are going to be adding all kinds of newness. BTW, tf you install FTP on Longhorn using the Server Manager or package manager command line, you get the old FTP server in the MMC console.

I know you asking "where can I get more info" and the answer is that papers are being uploaded to IIS.net very soon. Questions? Ask on the IIS.net forums.

I got to go, but I'm really psyched about this release. There is a lot more to talk about so stay tuned.

PS. Bill Staples just posted an annoucment to his blog. http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/04/25/what-s-new-in-iis7-beta-3.aspx

Google Scratches Google Calendar Maintenance

2007-04-27T07:49:00.000+05:30

Google Inc. has scrapped a planned 13-hour maintenance of Google Calendar that had some users confused and worried about potentially significant disruptions of the online calendaring service.

Apparently, Google decided to cancel the maintenance work after hearing from enough concerned users of Google Calendar and of the Google Apps hosted applications suite of which it is part.

"Google is focused on its users, and in this case we listened to user feedback in making our decision," a Google spokesman wrote via e-mail on Wednesday.

In a brief e-mail, Google notified Google Apps administrators that it planned to conduct "routine maintenance" of Calendar between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Thursday, but it didn't specify a time zone, leading some users to post

messages in discussion forums seeking clarification.

Others posted messages expressing concern about the length of service disruptions, which wasn't addressed in the initial e-mail, particularly because the maintenance work was scheduled during a weekday and during work hours. IT maintenance work that takes services offline is usually done during weekends or, if done during weekdays, very late at night.

Subsequently, Google sent these administrators another e-mail, clarifying that the first e-mail referred to Pacific Time and that end users might find Calendar unavailable for no more than 5 or 10 minutes during this 13-hour window.

However, Google is now saying Thursday's maintenance work has been scrapped, and that future work of this type in Calendar will be coordinated in a way that doesn't affect Google Apps users at all, according to the spokesman.

The incident has also triggered a review of how Google Apps software is maintained in the future. "We are actively working on changes in routine maintenance procedures for other products on the Google Apps platform so updates such as these will either take place outside of peak hours or not impact our customers at all. We are sorry for any confusion this has caused," the spokesman wrote.

Japan's KDDI to Provide Cell Phone Service in U.S

2007-04-10T21:20:00.000+05:30

TOKYO (Reuters)—Japan's KDDI said on Sunday it aims to offer a cellphone service in the United States using a network operated by Sprint Nextel.

KDDI, the second-biggest mobile phone operator in Japan after NTT DoCoMo, aims to cater to mainly Japanese customers in the United States, a spokesman said.

Tokyo-based KDDI will offer services using CDMA standard, developed by Qualcomm, and adopted by U.S. carriers such as Verizon and Sprint Nextel. That is different to the W-CDMA standard of technology popular in Europe and Asia.

Japanese operators have been eyeing new sources of revenue abroad as they expect slower subscriber growth in the saturated home market.

In 2001, DoCoMo invested about $10 billion in AT&T at the height of the Internet and telecom bubble, but later ended up booking huge losses from stakes in overseas operators.

Tokyo-based DoCoMo has since shifted its strategy to holding minority stakes in Asian carriers to expand in international roaming and help procure handsets more cheaply.

The Asahi newspaper said KDDI aimed for a full U.S. roll-out by the middle of this month, offering phones made by makers such as Sanyo Electric under the KDDI Mobile brand.

YouTube held to answer for videos

2007-04-08T22:14:00.000+05:30

YouTube has become a superstar of the Internet since the video-sharing website was launched in California slightly more than two years ago.

The following are some of the flashpoints in the history of the firm, which was bought by Internet search colossus Google in November:

Nov 2006 - YouTube removes copyrighted works in the face of complaints by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers

Nov 14, 2006 - Google completes its 1.65-billion-dollar acquisition of start-up YouTube. Google sets aside slightly more than 200 million dollars of the purchase price in a lawsuit defense fund

Dec 3, 2006 - Iran blocks YouTube and several other websites to keep out "corrupting" foreign films and music

Jan 4, 2007 - A Brazilian court orders YouTube blocked for failing to withdraw a compromising video of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli on a beach in Spain. The ban is lifted after YouTube removes the video

Feb 2, 2007 - YouTube agrees to remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom television programs

Feb 26, 2007 - Malaysia announces that it will prosecute anyone that posts clips of motorbike gangs performing dangerous stunts on Internet websites such as YouTube

Mar 1, 2007 - An Australian state bans YouTube from school computers in a bid to clamp down on cyber-bullying

Mar 7, 2007 - Turkey's largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, blocks access to YouTube on a court order due to a video deemed insulting to the country's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The ban is lifted after YouTube removes the video

Mar 13, 2007 - US entertainment giant Viacom files a billion-dollar lawsuit accusing Google and YouTube of "massive" copyright infringement

Mar 26, 2007 - The International Cricket Council tells YouTube to remove World Cup clips, claiming copyright infringement

Apr 4, 2007 - Thailand blocks YouTube after it carried a clip seen as insulting the country's revered king. New videos lampooning the king appear on the site two days later

Apr 5, 2007 - Tokyo's election commission asks YouTube to take off clips of candidates for the local governor's race, saying it gave some of them unfair advantages

Google Tests Directory Assistance for Phones

2007-04-08T22:12:00.000+05:30

Computer Web search leader Google stepped up an experiment to use speech recognition on telephones so consumers can ask for local information, in a challenge to directory assistance providers.

The company is inviting U.S. callers to dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone to test a voice-activated service free-of-charge that it calls Google Voice Local Search, which is available on its experimental Google Labs site.
"Using this service, you get fast access to the same local information you'd find on Google Maps," an explanation of the new experiment said on the Google Labs site. "You don't need a computer, you don't need an Internet connection, and you don't even need to use your cellphone keypad," it said.

Details are available at
http://labs.google.com/goog411/

Google's experiment comes weeks after Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire voice search firm Tellme Networks, in a deal sources said is valued at more than $800 million. The transaction is Microsoft's largest acquisition in five years.

Improving quality and falling costs of voice search technology are enticing Internet players Google, Microsoft, and rival Yahoo Inc. to expand beyond pay-per-click Web search advertising business into pay-per-call marketing.

Kelsey Group analysts estimate the U.S. directory assistance market generates $9.4 billion a year. Worldwide, the market rings up $13 billion, according to data published by Opus Research.

Google has staged on-and-off again tests stretching back to 2002 of ways to allow phone users to use their voices to ask for information, rather than telephone keypads or other more cumbersome approaches. The prior test remains up on the Web at:
http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html/
Matt Booth, an analyst with Kelsey Group in Pasadena, said Google's potential entry into the directory assistance market could transform the economics of the business, where callers to conventional "411" services can expect to pay $1 or more.

Booth said it costs such services at least 16 cents per call to pay human operators to answer such calls.

By hooking the automated service into advertising-supported local business information, Google could be able to slash the costs of providing directory assistance to around 2 cents per call, while generating around 10 cents for each business referral, Booth said, citing estimates by investment bank Thomas Weisel.

"This would allow Google to put its Internet ad business onto mobile phones," Booth said. "It's voice in and data out," he said, contrasting the voice search service to how users type keywords into a browser using classic Google search services.

Start-ups that offer free directory assistance include 1-800-FREE411, a service Jingle Networks Inc.

In a blog post, Booth said Google is running advertising tests on Jingle Networks (800-Free411) in two local markets.

Google Voice Local Search can be used from either mobile phones or land lines. Mobile phone callers can request listing details to be sent as a text message to their phones.

Callers dial the Google number and can ask for a pizza parlor, dry cleaner other business by name, Google said. The service runs on computers and uses no human operators.

"Eventually, I think you will be able to call up and do a voice search and have general Google results come back," said in a phone interview.

Google said it is seeking to fine-tune the computerized system to improve how the service recognizes users' requests. Voice Local Search is available in English, in the United States, and offers only U.S. local business listings for now.

The Mountain View, California-based company cautioned that Google Voice Local Search remains an experiment: "It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users."

Google doesn't charge users for the toll-free call or for connecting the caller to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, depending on the user's telephone service provider.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

O'Reilly launches online school for geeks

2007-04-08T22:02:00.000+05:30

Geeks in need of continuing education credit have a new resource: the O'Reilly School of Technology. The online-only course offerings cover programming, Unix, and web development, and can help coders in need of some résumé-buffing do so from the comfort of their favorite browser.

The school was launched this week, but it's not a new initiative. The University of Illinois actually launched and ran the precursor to the site, which was called the "IT Learning Sandbox" when it began in 1997. The company that ran the program eventually expanded it to include 17 different IT courses.

O'Reilly Media acquired the Sandbox in 2005, rebranded it, and updated the content. The school now offers 19 courses and 5 certificates in everything from .NET to XML to Linux sysadmin topics.

The University of Illinois has continued to work with O'Reilly after the acquisition and will provide official continuing education credits for users who complete the courses. The university also issues certificates to those who complete prescribed sequences of coursework. Most courses cost $400, and also require the rental of online lab space at $10 a month.

Corel updates WinDVD to stop AACS hackers

2007-04-08T22:01:00.000+05:30

Corel Software, who purchased InterVideo last August, have announced that they have issued a mandatory update for all WinDVD owners who wish to continue to use the software to view Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

The update is being issued to address the recent cracks that have extracted volume and title keys from AACS-protected Blu-ray and HD DVD titles. "Our decision stems from recent reports that hackers have illegally obtained certain software licensing keys and have used them to duplicate copyrighted content without prior authorization," a Corel spokesperson explained in a press release. "Corel takes this situation very seriously. We have been working closely with our partners and other industry organizations to ensure we take the steps necessary to prevent copyright infringement from happening in the future."

The AACS system of copy protection was designed to adapt to hackers figuring out the Device Keys for playback units—these keys combined with the Volume and Title Keys stored on each disc are used to decrypt the content. Compromised Device Keys can be revoked, and all new high-definition discs made afterwards will simply refuse to play on a revoked device.

According to the AACS spec, only titles that are produced after the Device Key has been revoked will fail to play; existing titles should still play back without any problems. However, Corel warns WinDVD users that they should "Please be aware that failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled," implying that no high-def discs will play without applying the update. It is possible that Corel designed the software to check for updates in the background and simply disable Blu-ray and HD DVD functionality if a new update was found but not installed. However, it seems more likely that Corel merely neglected to mention this aspect of the AACS specification.

While the hackers responsible for the AACS cracks did not mention WinDVD by name, it was clear that they were using this software to make their discoveries. Reaction to Corel's announcement has been fairly muted: everyone expected this patch to arrive, and the hacking community hopes that the new Device Key for the updated software will be found soon. The battle between hackers and copy protection developers will continue, with neither side gaining a decided advantage just yet.

WinInfo Short Takes: Week of April 9

2007-04-08T21:52:00.000+05:30

This Article has been taken from Windowsitpro.com where Paul Thurrott writes about Windows. So the Article Continues.

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news, including Windows Weekly Live, a coming "free" version of the Zune, Home Server SDK, nerd in space, Vista SP1 stupidity, XP SP3 stupidity, Longhorn Server Beta 3 candidate, and so much more...

WinInfo Blog

t feels like Saturday today because the kids are off from school (Good Friday?) and because my wife didn't set the alarm as a result so I slept in by mistake. Now I've got to race through Short Takes so I can make it to the gym on time and... arrgggh..... Anyway. There's nothing like the sharp, cold blast of reality in the morning.

And speaking of cold, I'm going to stop talking about the weather. After essentially promising myself and others that winter was over, we lapsed into a week of frigid temperatures and even had some snow. I almost ran outside and covered up the flowers that had burst through the ground a week earlier. It's finally going to be milder this coming week, but the past week has just been brutal. Spring always comes in fits and starts in this part of the world, but this is ridiculous.

My son Mark turns nine on Saturday. He's selected "Monster Golf" as the location for this year's party, so our family, and almost 20 screaming nine-years old kids, will be immersed in a dark, black-lighted indoor mini-golf nightmare for a few hours this evening, and I as much as I love the kid, I have to admit I'm not all that excited about this event. And if you're curious, there's still no word on his pending cochlear implant surgery. Apparently, we're waiting on the parts, which is also true of my wife's Mazda, and yes, I find that coincidence more than vaguely disturbing.

For the next ten days, friends of ours from France will be visiting, which is a nice turnaround, as we've stayed with them more than a few times now when we travel there.

Last night, Leo and I recorded a live version of our Windows Weekly podcast, which was fun. We had quite a crowd, and a number of people calling in via Skype or otherwise. I'm not sure how this works, exactly, but I assume a recording will be made available normally via the podcast. In the meantime, you can hear it on the TalkShoe Web site.

Short Takes

Microsoft Considers Near-Free Zune Model

While there have been rumors of a Zune smart phone lately, it seems that Microsoft's designs on the smart phone market are more about distribution plans than actual hardware: The company is considering taking a page from the cell phone/smart phone playback by offering a Zune model for little or no cost and then making up the difference by requiring the buyer to sign on to a yearly subscription plan. If Microsoft does pursue this tact, it won't happen any time soon, but the company noted that it got the idea in recent months after watching the number of subscribers to its Zune Marketplace surge early this year. I think that's a fine idea, but I'd like to see Microsoft attack some core Zune issues first, by adding additional model types (like a flash-based version) and some missing functionality (including podcast support).

Microsoft Releases Home Server SDK

Microsoft's upcoming Windows Home Server product is a nifty idea, and my experience with the beta version thus far has been surprisingly positive. This week, Microsoft revealed that it will be making Home Server even more useful, however: It released a software development kit, or SDK that will allow developers to write applications and services that can integrate with Home Server. And I'd like to once again clear up some confusion about this product: Despite what virtually every report I've seen about Home Server says, Microsoft will make two versions available: Software-only, which you can install on your own PC or server hardware, and as a bundle with Home Server-specific hardware. This, too, makes the product more valuable.

Hungarian Notation Creator Heads to Space

Charles Simonyi, the Hungarian-born ex-Microsoft developer responsible for the so-called Hungarian Notation style of programming, will soon rocket into space onboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship. The self-described "space nerd" has been training for months, and he paid a $20 million fee to become the 450th person in space. Or, as he calls it, "the first nerd in space." Dr. Simonyi and his crew will blast off on Saturday and spend ten days at the International Space Station. Now, that's what I call a vacation with a view.

Microsoft Threatens Poster of Vista SP1 Info

This is a weird one: Last week, a blogger named Ethan Allen posted a list of the 100-plus hot-fixes and patches that Microsoft plans to ship as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), due later this year. He claimed that the list was mostly derived from Microsoft's publicly available knowledge base (KB) articles, though it has never been assembled in a single place as he did on his site. He also supplied a download of the fixes, which he called the Vista SP1 Preview. Microsoft was not amused. The company sent Allen a cease and desist order, for some reason, and demanded that the blogger remove his "unauthorized redistribution of [Microsoft's] hot fixes." More problematically, from my perspective, is that Microsoft program manager Nick White was harshly critical of Allen's list in the Windows Vista blog on the Microsoft Web site. I find that offensive: Allen is an enthusiast trying to help people, and the way he's rewarded is with a legal threat and a dismissive mention in a Microsoft-run Web site. Bravo, Microsoft. What's next? Do you think you could just tar and feather the guy while you're at it?

The Truth About Vista SP1

I'm tired of Microsoft's insane posturing about Windows Vista SP1. I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. Every single time Vista SP1 comes up, some representative from Microsoft--all the way up to CEO Steve Ballmer, by the way, who has done this twice in public--acts as if the company has no idea when it will ship SP1 or what features it will include. That is not true. Microsoft will ship Windows Vista SP1 concurrently with Longhorn Server in Q3 2007 and SP1 will include a major kernel update for Vista that will bring the client OS up to speed with the version of the Windows kernel in Longhorn Server. That has been the plan for quite a while, and they all know it. Why the company can't just say, "We'd rather not discuss SP1 at this time" is beyond me. Instead, they're simply lying, and for no good reason. And that's not right, especially when there are millions of customers waiting on this release to upgrade. You'd think a company that supposedly cares about transparency as much as Microsoft would realize when they're being so, well, transparent.

And What About Windows XP Service Pack 3?

And while I'm ranting a bit, let's dredge up Windows XP Service Pack 3, which was delayed from 2005 to 2006 to 2007 and now to 2008. If you were looking for any glimpse into the mind of Microsoft, this is it: The company has completely abandoned Windows XP, and it has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3. My guess is that Microsoft will do what it did with the final Windows 2000 Service Pack: Claim years later that it's no longer needed and just ship a final security patch roll-up. This is the worst kiss-off to any Microsoft product I've ever seen, and you'd think the company would show a little more respect to its best-selling OS of all time. But the reality is, Microsoft is looking ahead to new revenue and not behind to money that's already in the bank. And though hundreds of millions of people will be running XP for years to come, despite Microsoft's best efforts at selling them a later Windows version, the company has absolutely no plans to actually support those customers. This flies in the face of its publicly-stated life cycle support plans. And it really freaks me out. It should freak you out as well.

Microsoft Preps Longhorn Server Beta 3

And while we're on the topic of future revenues, Microsoft this week shipped a candidate build for Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 3, which should be finalized sometime this month. The interim build, which is called a Community Technical Preview (CTP), adds an unexpected feature, Windows PowerShell, the Microsoft command line and scripting environment that was originally not slated for inclusion in Longhorn. I'll be reviewing Longhorn Server Beta 3 on the SuperSite for Windows when it becomes available.

In Wake of Lawsuit, Microsoft Changes Vista Logo Branding

It seems that Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" labeling for pre-Vista PCs was a little too confusing for consumers, who were expecting such PCs to include support for Vista features like Aero "glass." As a result, there's a lawsuit winding its way through the courts that argues that Microsoft's logo branding was deceptive, and they're shooting for class action status. Now, there's a debate to be had over this is bad enough to warrant a lawsuit, but as Brier Dudley of "The Seattle Times" noted this week, Microsoft has already changed the wording of its Vista Capable program. Originally, it read, "The Windows Vista Capable logo is designed to assure customers that the PCs they buy today will be ready for an upgrade to Windows Vista and can run the core experiences of Windows Vista." Now, it reads as, "All Windows Vista Capable PCs will run these core experiences at a minimum." Frankly, Microsoft brought these problems on itself by making too many Vista product editions and then trying to diversify them by arbitrarily adding and removing features from each. Again, I'm not sure it warrants a lawsuit, but it's certainly not consumer-friendly.

Microsoft Moves Hotmail Plus to 4 GB as Yahoo! Goes Unlimited

Microsoft this week raised the storage limit on its subscription-based Windows Live Hotmail Plus service from 2 GB to 4 GB, though the increase is being staged over time, so you might not see the additional storage for a few weeks or even months. Those who have been upgraded, unfortunately, are reporting problems: Though the system reports that they have 4 GB of space, they can only store 2 GB of mail. Microsoft says they'll work out the kinks over time. But maybe they should be looking to Yahoo, which recently announced that it will raise its email storage limit from 1 GB to unlimited storage. The best part? This will be available to users of the free version of Yahoo Mail as well. Sounds like we have a winner.

Acer Notebook Sales Surge

Speaking of winners, PC maker Acer is coming on strong in the notebook market, thanks to new retail pushes. In the fourth quarter of 2006, Acer pushed aside Toshiba to become the third best selling maker of notebook computers, behind HP and Dell. In the quarter, HP sold 5.05 million notebook computers, compared to Dell, with 3.52 million, and Acer, with 3.37 million. Fourth place Toshiba sold 2.45 million units. Researchers at IDC now believe that Acer has enough momentum to pull into third place overall in the PC industry. To do so, they'll have to displace Lenovo, which is currently in the top three behind HP and Dell.

Sony Cuts PSP Price

Sony this week cut the price of its PSP (PlayStation Portable) portable video game system from $199 to $169 in the US, in an attempt to spur sales. The PSP, which in my book is demonstrably better than the Nintendo DS that is currently outselling it, has fared somewhat poorly in the marketplace, though Sony reports it has sold 25 million units since 2005. What's odd is that this is the first price cut for the PSP. Odder still, the PSP is still more expensive than the DS, which has already seen a fairly major product update. The PSP, curiously, has not.

Microsoft Improves Xbox 360 Warranty... Again

You know, it's almost like there's an endemic problem with this thing. Microsoft this week unveiled yet another change to its Xbox 360 warranty, this one aimed at ensuring that customers who need to return the console for repairs can do so with free shipping and with a faster turnaround. Best of all: Repaired consoles include a fresh one-year warranty. Previously, Microsoft enhanced the Xbox 360 warranty in December, when it increased the length of the warranty from 90 days to 1 year. Still, my advice on the Xbox 360 is very simple: Buy it locally and get the warranty from whatever retailer you visit. This is the one time where the ability to exchange it locally will really pay off. Too many of these things are turning up lame.

ICANN is considering becoming a private entity

2007-04-08T21:50:00.000+05:30

The strategy was recommended in the group's recently-released Strategy Committee report, but observers fear going private will just be a ploy to avoid accountability .

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is considering a change in the way the Internet's governing body is organized that could allow it to skirt some potential legal issues.

In late March, a committee that was formed to make recommendations to ICANN related to certain strategic issues released the President's Strategy Committee Report with its findings. The committee recommends that ICANN and relevant stakeholders consider the advantages of "moving ICANN's legal identity to that of a private international organization based in the U.S."

As the committee sees it, that change would offer the organization immunities to limit liabilities.

Some onlookers are skeptical of the idea. "ICANN's new President's Strategy Committee Report makes public for the first time what insiders have been muttering about for almost a year: ICANN has a great new idea for avoiding all accountability," Michael Froomkin, a professor specializing in Internet and administrative law at the University of Miami School of Law, wrote on ICANNWatch.org, a Web site he helped found.

If ICANN were to go the route of reclassifying itself as an independent international organization, it would be on par with groups like the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international soccer association. That model hasn't necessarily worked perfectly, he said. "Not surprisingly, the lack of accountability at the IOC and FIFA created a climate for scandal and speculation," he wrote.

Also, the U.S. is unlikely to agree to such a change, which would essentially shield ICANN from any liability or judicial supervision, he wrote.

If ICANN does move forward with the plan, it should be sure to establish full accountability and review mechanisms, including a process for using international arbitration panels, the committee wrote. It should also consider incorporating relevant California or U.S. federal law into its arbitration process, the committee said.

The proposal comes after a decision late last year to extend U.S. government oversight of ICANN for three more years. That decision drew praise from onlookers eager to ensure that a transition to independence is smooth for the organization and criticism from those pushing for ICANN to be truly international without the influence of any one government.

Damon Albarn releases EMI's first DRM-free album

2007-04-08T21:48:00.000+05:30

Former Blur member Damon Albarn's latest music project is the first EMI album to be released without copy protection.

Kingdom of Doom, by The Good, The Bad & The Queen, is available to download as 256Kbps MP3 files.

EMI said that the unlocked files give fans the option of choosing to play the music across a range of devices and platforms, including digital music players, mobile phones and home music systems.

"We are delighted that this amazing band's songs can now be purchased directly from their website in a format that can be enjoyed on all music players," said Eric Nicoli, chief executive of EMI Group.

Apple's iTunes service will be the first online music store to receive EMI's DRM-free downloads.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen is made up of Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong.

Photobucket Rules its Market

2007-04-08T21:44:00.000+05:30

Photo-sharing site is by far the most popular in its category among U.S. users.

Photobucket Inc.'s eponymous photo sharing site is by far the most popular in its category among U.S. users, dwarfing the traffic of competitors like Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Photos and Flickr.

Photobucket nabbed 41.4 percent of U.S. visits to photography Web sites in March, a market share that is more than seven times larger than its nearest competitor, according to Hitwise Pty. Ltd.

Yahoo Inc.'s Photos came in a distant second place with 5.8 percent, while Flickr, also owned by Yahoo, had 4.6 percent, Hitwise said Wednesday. Slide Inc.'s Slide.com (4.5 percent) and Eastman Kodak Co.'s Kodak Gallery (3.4 percent) rounded out the top five.

Storing, displaying and sharing of photos is one of the most popular activities on the Internet, as digital cameras and camera phones have become ubiquitous devices in the general population. As such, photo sites are strong vehicles for advertising revenue.

Photobucket lets users store photos, slide shows, videos and graphics on its servers and then link them to other Web sites. It is particularly popular among users of the social networking giant site MySpace, from where it receives almost 57 percent of its upstream traffic, according to Hitwise.

Photobucket, founded in 2003, has 39 million registered users. It links its photos, videos and graphics to 500,000 different Web sites, according to the company. Its users upload about 7 million photos and 40,000 videos to the site every day.

Photobucket ranked 34th among ComScore Networks Inc.'s top 50 U.S. Web properties in March, with almost 16.8 million unique visitors.

Samsung Launches Quiet SpinPoint Hard Drives

2007-04-06T19:22:00.000+05:30

Silence is golden with Samsung's new hard drives

Samsung today announced that its new 3.5” SpinPoint S166 Series of ultra silent and high-speed hard disk drives are currently shipping in 80GB and 160GB capacities. The S166 Series has a spindle speed of 7,200RPM and provides an 8MB buffer. The Series features the SATA 3.0Gbps interface and includes Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The drives are also available with a PATA interface for customers who require this application.

The new SpinPoint S Series of hard drives offer upgraded versions of Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. Benchmarking results presented by Samsung show competing hard drives generate on average 2.8 bel (1 bel = 10 decibels) in idle mode and 3.2 bel in seek mode, while Samsung’s S166 series generate just 2.4 bel and 2.75 bel respectively.

Samsung claims the fifteen percent noise-level reduction is “significant” and makes the drives ideal for use in office computers, as well as in home consumer electronics such as DVR/ PVRs, or any other hard drive equipped products intended for use in a quiet environment.

“Samsung is constantly pushing the technology envelope with the introduction of new and innovative products that meet the computing needs of today’s most demanding customers and operating environments,” states TJ Lee, vice president of sales & marketing at Samsung Electronics’ Storage System Division. “This latest technology development by Samsung in the new SpinPoint S166 Series makes our high-end, award-winning hard drive products attractive to a wider audience by even further reducing acoustic noise and improving disk data transfer speed.”

Google to build $600M datacenter in South Carolina

2007-04-06T19:08:00.000+05:30

Google is also looking to build a second site in South Carolina
Google plans to invest $600 million in a new datacenter in South Carolina, the state government said on Wednesday.

The datacenter will be built on a 210 hectare site at the Mt. Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County near Charleston. Land at the site was purchased by a Google subsidiary last year, according to a statement by the State of South Carolina.

Google plans to use as many local vendors as possible to build the center to maximize the boost to the local economy, the state said. The center is expected to lead to the creation of an initial 200 jobs and should see Google paying just under $2 million per year in property taxes to the county.

The Internet search and advertising giant will be partially reimbursed by the state for site preparation and infrastructure as part of South Carolina's Job Development Credits incentive program. The state legislature has also updated the tax rules so that electricity and capital investment in equipment necessary for data centers used in the web search portal and internet service provider industries are exempt from sales tax., the statement said.

Additionally Google is looking at a second site in South Carolina near Columbia, the state capital, the statement said.

The identity of the site was not specified but a report on the Web site of the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper said a Google-affiliated company, Arum Composites, recently bought 466 acres (189 hectares) of land north of Columbia.

The local community will start benefiting from the decision before the data center comes online. In neighboring North Carolina the city of Lenoir is already seeing the pay-off from Google's decision to build a datacenter there. Several hundred construction workers are living in local hotels, eating at local restaurants and buying from local shops.

Hitachi Ships 1TB Hard Disk Drive

2007-04-06T18:59:00.000+05:30

Hitachi Ships 1TB Hard Disk Drive.

Hitachi’s 1000GB HDD Available in Japan

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has started to ship its 1TB hard disk drives (HDDs) introduced early this year commercially. But the hard drive that represents a milestone in desktop data storage costs a little less than two times higher compared to slightly less capacious one, which makes it not very affordable.

Hitachi’s Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 model features five 250GB platters and ten heads, has 7200rpm motor as well as 32MB data buffer. The manufacturer claims that the drive has 8.5ms read seek time, 9.2ms write seek time and 1070Mb/s (133.75MB/s) maximum media transfer rate. Currently the company ships 1TB hard disk drive with Serial ATA-300 interface, but a model with Parallel ATA interface is also expected to be available.

Hitachi’s 1TB hard disk drive indisputably represents a milestone in desktop storage, as only ten years ago the world’s most capacious hard disk drive was 16.7GB IBM Deskstar, whereas 1GB landmark in desktops was achieved in 1995. But, it appears, end-users will have to pay a significant premium to acquire the product that reached 1TB milestone.

Currently Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard disk drives with 1TB capacity are available in Japan for ¥51 500 - ¥55980 ($433 - $470), much higher compared to Seagate Barracuda 750GB, which retails for ¥29400 - ¥39660 ($247 - $333) in Tokyo, according to Akiba PC Hotline web-site. The recommended price of the 1TB drive from Hitachi for the U.S. is $399, whereas Seagate’s 750GB product costs starting from $249 in the country.

Yahoo Tests Customizable Alpha Search Engine

2007-04-06T18:51:00.000+05:30

Prototype tool lets users tailor searches by components from different sources.

Yahoo Inc. is quietly testing a search engine which users can customize by adding, removing and rearranging components, suggesting that the company may plan to make it easier for users to tailor search sites to reflect their interests.

Yahoo Alpha, which is hosted on an Australian domain, offers a default results page with a list of Web sites on the left hand column and six specialty search result boxes on the right hand column.

The specialty boxes display results from three Yahoo search engines: the Flickr photo service, the Answers question-and-answer service and Yahoo News. It also returns non-Yahoo results from Google Inc.'s YouTube video site and from the encyclopedia Wikipedia. Finally, it has a box for displaying search ads from Yahoo's online ad network.

It gives users the option to customize the default layout of the results page by repositioning the different elements and by adding or removing the specialty search boxes. Apparently, users can insert a search results page from any Web site that syndicates its content via RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

A quick test-drive of the site shows that anyone can query Alpha and obtain results in the default page, but to customize the layout and search sources, users need to log into Yahoo.

A handful of Yahoo Alpha sightings began sprouting up on the blogosphere on Wednesday. Asked for comment and details about Yahoo Alpha, which is in beta, or test, phase, the company would provide only the following statement on Thursday: "This is a very early prototype and we are always testing new products and services to get feedback from our users on improving the user experience."

Yahoo already provides a service called Search Builder to let Web publishers build customized search engines for their sites based on the Yahoo search platform. However, Yahoo Alpha seems targeted at end users interested in creating a search page tailored to their interests. Users can also share their Yahoo Alpha search pages with others.

As such, Yahoo Alpha seems to be yet another experiment in social search for the company, which has been exploring and providing search services that let users participate by contributing content and tags. For example, Yahoo Answers lets users answer each other's questions, while Del.icio.us lets users post and share their favorite Web site bookmarks. Flickr does a similar thing with photos.

Yahoo Alpha seems similar, at least conceptually, to Google Inc.'s Co-op, which also lets users create a customized search engine. People can use their Co-op-created engine for their personal use, and they also have the option of embedding it on their Web site for others to use.

Social-search services have become popular as tools for users to tame the often unmanageable amount and breadth of search results that general Web engines return for average queries.

Tokyo requests YouTube delete candidates' speeches

2007-04-06T18:48:00.000+05:30

Tokyo's election commission Thursday asked the popular video sharing website YouTube to take off clips of candidates for the local governor's race, saying it gave some of them unfair advantages.

The election commission said it wanted to "ensure fairness" among candidates ahead of Sunday's election in the world's largest metropolis. "We made the requests via e-mail and fax to the YouTube office in the United States," said commission official Hiroyoshi Yone.

"The site has allowed only certain candidates' speeches to be viewed freely on the site, with which we cannot ensure the fairness of the election," he said. But the commission has not received any reply from the operator of the US website, he said. Japanese election law limits the broadcasting of speeches, which are aired only on public broadcaster NHK.

Soon after the race kicked off last month, the speech by one fringe candidate, street musician Koichi Toyama, 36, has become a popular attraction on YouTube due to his eccentric, confrontational approach. YouTube, which was bought in November by Google, has faced trouble in Japan before. In February, it agreed to post a copyright infringement warning in Japanese under pressure from media and copyright protection bodies. This week Thailand's military-installed government banned YouTube entirely after it failed to block a video considered insulting to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a revered figure in the country.

Leopard leaping in June

2007-04-03T18:32:00.000+05:30

The release will come at the tail end of spring, which ends June 21, enabling Apple to meet its original shipping estimate.

As recently as January Apple had been targeting a ship date of end March—as noted by multiple Think Secret sources and other media reports—but the company elected in recent weeks to move the date back. Sources privy to the reasons behind the June ship date could tell Think Secret the details only off the record, however.

"Leopard is shaping up to be a more significant release than anyone expected, with much more to come than any of the developer builds have led on," one source said.

Also scheduled for a June release now are new versions of Apple's iLife and iWork suites, which will pack extensive Leopard-dependent features. Sources say Apple continues to toy with the idea of bundling one or both suites with the new operating system free of charge in an effort to further play up the extra value and features Mac OS X offers over Microsoft's new Windows Vista.

In addition, there is a reasonable chance that Apple will drop its yearly naming convention for the software suites entirely, sources report, suggesting "'07" could be replaced with "Leopard Edition", or a similar naming convention that would free Apple from being tied to date-specific versions that appear older in consumer's minds as the calendar rolls over.

Competitor Microsoft plans to release the next version of Office for Mac in the second-half of 2007, for example, but will assign the software a 2008 label. Apple's next version of iWork, meanwhile, is poised to compete even more directly with Office with the addition of a new spreadsheet application.

Banks Starting to Look to Microsoft Vista

2007-04-03T18:25:00.000+05:30

In February, Microsoft launched its much-anticipated Vista operating system (OS). According to the company, the successor to Windows XP sports several new features that are designed to increase productivity for Microsoft's clients -- including, of course, banks.

"XP [which was released in 2001] is pretty widely deployed in banks, from the lending side to product management, even in the back office," says Greg Haislip, managing director, banking, at Microsoft. "Vista will take over this role," he contends. However, there isn't a "financial services" version of Vista per se, Haislip notes, adding that Vista is a horizontal platform common across Microsoft's footprint.

Still, there are certain aspects of the OS that bankers can exploit to help improve their operations, specifically around security, mobile computing and search. For example, baked into Vista is encryption technology that leverages Microsoft's BitLocker solution. The OS can store centralized keys so users won't need to rebuild them if the data or hardware is compromised.

Further, Vista includes a new search feature that allows users to search different types of media on their computers. "Finding information fast is vital to banks," states Haislip. "This is true for lending officers, relationship managers, wealth managers and call centers."

Another of Vista's capabilities that can be exploited by bankers is on-demand networking for mobile workers. "Vista has P2P networking capability so you can access information from anywhere. This is great for private bankers, for example," Haislip states. "We're building a lot of these things into the core operating system so clients don't have to rely on third parties."

Microsoft also offers a Vista desktop optimization pack that allows users to virtualize applications. "This can be used, for example, on an archaic teller system or an internal system based on an older version of ACT," explains Microsoft's Marley Gray, technical architect, banking. "You can run the new and the old applications in parallel to help lower your risk when you migrate completely to the new version."

The Vista Plunge

Doubts have been expressed about the extent to which Vista is ready for prime time, however. Some industry analysts, such as Gartner (Stamford, Conn.), say it will take at least a year of testing before most banks are able to switch to the new OS, mainly due to issues around compatibility of Vista with their applications and whether their vendors' applications can support Vista.

Therefore, expect a gradual adoption of Vista, says IDC (Framingham, Mass.). According to a report from the firm, during 2007, "Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise will account for 35 percent of the new Windows client operating environments deployed by business users." The following year, the study says, this figure will grow to 80 percent for new deployments.

Some organizations, however, have already taken the Vista plunge. The Dalles, Ore.-based Columbia River Bank ($1 billion in assets), for example, was invited into Microsoft's technology adoption program for Vista and began beta-testing the OS in February 2006. It started upgrading its systems to the nonbeta version in December, according to Nathan Church, VP and IT manager at Columbia River.

"The main reason we went with Vista was that it has a lot of security built into it that we wanted to implement -- encryption, BitLocker, the ability to lock down your desktop," explains Church. "Otherwise, we would have had to look to third parties for this."

Vista's compatibility with its bank-specific systems also was of particular concern to Columbia River, Church adds. "One of the reasons we looked at Vista so early was to see if it was compatible with our systems," he explains. "We were able to see where any glitches were early on. Through the entire [beta] process, we were able to communicate with the vendors to fix these things."

Church also cites Vista's enhanced search capability and new mobility features as efficiency-boosters. "It just allows better management in a notebook environment," he asserts.

"Every single PC will be upgraded to [Vista] -- desktops and notebooks. This includes our call center, front line, tellers, loan officers, private bankers, administrative staff and executives," Church continues. "There are almost 500 computers throughout the bank," he says, adding that the migration should be completed by May.

UK hacker loses extradition fight

2007-04-03T18:14:00.000+05:30

A British man has lost his High Court fight against extradition to the US for allegedly carrying out the "biggest military computer hack of all time".

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, of north London, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers. Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued the 41-year-old had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights. His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail. He would also face a long prison sentence - "in the region of 45 years" - and may not be allowed to serve part of the sentence at home in the UK, his lawyers had said.

But, on Tuesday, Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Goldring dismissed his legal challenge, saying they could not find any grounds for appeal. Ben Cooper, for Mr McKinnon, said his client would now seek to make an appeal against his extradition at the House of Lords. Alleged threats by US authorities, including one from New Jersey prosecutors that "he would fry", would be among issues raised, Mr Cooper said. "We will certainly be applying for this court to certify a point of law of public importance and to grant leave," he said.Mr McKinnon had been suffering from ill health during recent court hearings, he added. Mr McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002. Mr McKinnon, arrested in November 2002, has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.

Blu-ray Disc Specification Change Threatens Current Players

2007-04-03T18:08:00.000+05:30

Blu-ray Disc Java is coming this fall, and it may be incompatible with some of today's machines.

The most common piece of advice given to those unsure about which high-definition optical format to buy is to simply wait until a victor emerges. Early adopters, however, should be aware that being cutting edge could come with a price, such as the risk of bugs or complete hardware and software obsolescence.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players of the format released after October 31 must adhere to a specific feature set that is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All Blu-ray Disc players after the fall date must support BD Java, a programming language for Blu-ray Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary and special features.

“Blu-ray player requirements and BD-Java specifications have been gradually changed over and over again, which has caused a good amount of grief for player manufacturers,” said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack. “The new specification and requirements will ensure that all Blu-ray players manufactured past October will be able to support the full range of BD-Java capabilities, including picture in picture and more.”

Early adopters of Blu-ray players may find themselves with inadequate hardware to support media using BD Java software.

Novack continued, “This might be bad news for early adopters who have already purchased a player, but it will not prevent them from playing back future Blu-ray movies. Owners of first generation Blu-ray players will probably not be able to use the full range of interactive features available on future Blu-ray Disc titles.”

Owners of current Blu-ray Disc players who are concerned about the future utility of their hardware are assured by manufacturers that current players won’t be made completely obsolete with the new standard.

“As is common in new format introductions, future products will include some additional features such as picture-in-picture,” said Philips VP Marty Gordon to Video Business. “Regardless of whether first-generation hardware supports these new features, the discs will still play.”

Unlike the HD DVD standard, Blu-ray players are not required to have Ethernet ports for firmware updates. Blu-ray machines with upgradable firmware likely will have a greater chance of conforming to the mandated format this fall.

Although HD DVD is not without its own set of early adopter issues, support for a standard programming language is already solidified for the format. HDi, an XML-based format developed by Microsoft and Toshiba, is mandatory on all HD DVD players and enables picture-in-picture special features to run alongside the feature length film.

Warner Bros. has released titles such as Batman Begins and V for Vendetta for HD DVD but not Blu-ray for the sole reason of the latter format’s lack of standardization. The upcoming Matrix trilogy release will also appear on HD DVD first for the same reason. Warner Bros. said that it would release Blu-ray Disc versions of such films in the fall, assumingly after the BD Java mandate takes effect.

Paramount has taken a different approach with Blu-ray’s apparent shortcoming. The studio released Mission: Impossible 3 on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, though the HD DVD version features a video picture-in-picture commentary, while the Blu-ray version does only with audio.

Only a couple Blu-ray movies feature picture-in-picture commentaries, those titles being Descent and Crank, though they do so without BD Java. Cleverly, and perhaps inelegantly, two complete versions of the movie are stored on a 50GB Blu-ray disc. One version contains the normal version of the film, while the second one features the picture-in-picture commentary hard-encoded on top of the film.

The addition of BD Java is not the only new requirement for Blu-ray players this fall. All players released after October 31 must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage. Those with network options will have to have 1GB of memory to support Web downloads.

Famed DVD producer, Van Ling, expresses discontent over the lack of standardization of the Blu-ray format. “The whole problem comes in when some manufacturers toe the minimum line and some others might make twice the minimum [functionality] on players,” said Ling. “In my view, I shouldn’t have to know what every single player can do. Rather than downgrade my creative vision for the lowest common denominator player, I want to create something [that fully realizes Blu-ray abilities].”

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

2007-04-03T18:06:00.000+05:30

London, 2 April 2007 -- EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."

New bill lets colleges use federal funds to fight P2P

2007-04-03T11:40:00.000+05:30

Representative Ric Keller (R-FL) feels that colleges in America are teaching students more than literature, history, and computer science. They are also dens of thievery, places where students learn to steal "billions of dollars in intellectual property from hardworking people whose jobs hang in the balance." Rep. Keller is talking about illegal file-swapping, of course, and his new bill (HR 1689) could give schools more money to combat the P2P scourge.

The bill is called the "Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act of 2007." It amends the Higher Education Act, a bill that supplies federal money to universities, allowing that money to be used for programs that reduce illegal downloading of copyrighted content.

The goal is to free up university money that would otherwise be spent on bandwidth costs and to keep networks more secure by keeping out viruses that may attach themselves to P2P files. The bill notes that "computer systems at colleges and universities are intended primarily to aid in educating and increase research capability among students and faculty;" clogging a campus network with BitTorrent traffic does not fall under the school's educational mandate.

The Higher Education Act (HEA) generally allows schools to spend the money they receive only on certain prescribed areas such as financial aid grants and Pell loans. The new bill would allow that money to be used for more things, but does not contain a request for additional funding. Whether schools would be interested in using a limited pool of federal money to police student file-swapping remains to be seen.

There's no guarantee that the bill will make it to a vote, of course. It has already been shunted to the House Committee on Education and Labor, and might languish there until the end of this Congressional term except for the fact that the HEA needs to be reauthorized, and soon. The HEA expires this summer, and Congress will certainly find a way to extend it yet again or fully reauthorize it, since few things look worse than cutting massive student aid programs.

Campuses have come under plenty of scrutiny in the past few weeks, with the RIAA and the MPAA calling schools out for high levels of illicit P2P usage. Individual representatives in Congress have also taken an interest in the issue; can it be long before the carrot of additional funds for security is supplemented with the stick of penalties for not addressing the problem?

MySpace bug hunt off to a slow start

2007-04-03T11:36:00.000+05:30

As You all know about the bug which was going to Invade Myspace starting April 1 as proclaimed by 2 Hackers or say persons , So this is in continuation of the News and Attacks on Myspace.

A group of hackers has kicked off its month of MySpace vulnerabilities, which it hopes will make more of a splash than January's month of bugs for Apple Inc.'s software.

But they acknowledge they've started off with a softball, as the first one revealed on Sunday isn't too dangerous, they wrote .

The problem involves URL (Uniform Resource Locator) spoofing. An attacker could build an official-looking MySpace page using MySpace's CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) editing features that's designed to solicit a person's log-in details. The fake page could have a URL that reads "www.myspace.com/PasswordReset."

The problem is credited to mybeNi websecurity .

"Note, it's a pretty light one, seeing how today is Sunday, and we don't really expect the crack MySpace Security Squad to actually do a lot of code changes on Sunday," they wrote. "So, we went with one they probably don't care about, and isn't terribly dangerous on its own."

The hackers, who go by the names Mondo Armando and Müstaschio, have said they picked MySpace for their project for its high number of users. MySpace had 64.4 million unique visitors in February, according to comScore Networks Inc., which tracks Web site traffic.

The hackers have informed MySpace of the project, they said.

"They are adhering to the company line that they do not respond to inquiries regarding security," one of the hackers wrote in an e-mail to IDG News Service.

The "month of bugs" theme has been criticized as gimmicky and, sometimes, just not that exciting. Others have done the "Month of kernel bugs" and "Month of PHP bugs" projects. The month of Apple bugs, which ran throughout January, turned up flaws but nothing too alarming.

But MySpace might prove more fertile. It has frequently been targeted by hackers since a single compromised account can open a door to potentially hundreds of thousands of other users, which can be targeted with spam or infected with malicious code.

In December, a worm rapidly spread across user profiles using a cross-site scripting weakness and a feature within Apple's QuickTime multimedia player.

Users who visited another MySpace profile could be infected by viewing an embedded QuickTime file, which could then begin an attack to capture the user's log-in details.

If the MySpace vulnerabilities aren't that thrilling, the hackers said it could aid the end of month-long bug-finding sprees.

"If it kills this Month of Whatever fad, then hurray for everyone, it's over," they wrote on their Web site.

US$499 blue-laser player models to be generally available in 2H07

2007-04-03T11:29:00.000+05:30

Samsung Electronics lowered the retail price for its Blu-ray Disc (BD) player BP-1000 by about 48% to US$469.99 in late March of 2007 and in response, Toshiba immediately reduced the US retail price for its entry-level HD DVD player HD-A2 to US$399. The price competition will lead to the situation that many BD and HD DVD player models will be launched at US$499 or less during the second half of the year, according to Taiwan makers of optical disc drives.

With US$500 regarded as an indicator of market acceptance for optical disc drives, BD or HD DVD players for sale at US$499 or lower were originally expected to come up in the fourth quarter of 2007, the sources indicated. However, Toshiba took the initiative to launch an entry-level HD DVD player, HD-E1, at a retail price of US$499 early in March 2007, triggering the US$499 price competition two quarters earlier than originally expected, the sources pointed out.

Today Starts Again

2007-04-02T08:37:00.000+05:30

This Post is done so that i may recall attention of all the persons coming to this blog that please tell me about some sort of the themes or customizations that need to be done in order that my blog should look good.

Please Post about the good and bad things about the blog.

Template Customization

2007-03-31T18:09:00.000+05:30

Hi Guys, You know that the fact that i mentioned that i will start posting on this blog on 2 April Onwards is just because i needed some time to get into templates and also needed some sort of template which my blog can need and will need and now it is made up and now i will start posting on 2 April onwards and then it will start again now with something you all Need ,

Back To Buisness On 2 April

2007-03-23T13:27:00.000+05:30

Hey Guys and all those who were regular at this blog of mine must have thought that i have closed this blog but dear friends i did not close this blog , due to certain activities of mine i was not getting time to write in this blog so , i closed posting for some days but now i am back and will start posting the regular updates from 2April ..........
Do Not think that i am going to make your fool because of April Month but i will surely come back

As Arnold Schwarznegar i think it is his Name said in the Terminator Movies ,

I Would Be Back , So will I

Just Wait for 2April.............

Till Then Yours Only !

Coming Back To Life

2007-03-01T17:29:00.000+05:30

HeyGuys and girls it has been a longtime since i have posted nothing ,
Now its time for me to come out of hibernation and start something again .
Now The BCALUTECH.BLOGSPOT.com IS undergoing some changes like the template change and also content change . Please do support us and also visit soon again within 2 days from today to see thaat you can get something new in this popular blog

Coming Soon !

2007-01-28T08:09:00.000+05:30

hi this is BCALUTECH.com and this site is coming to you live within few weeks time

Intel orders rival to stop making CPUs

2006-11-26T11:54:00.000+05:30

GIANT CPU maker Intel is pressuring smaller rival Via Technologies to exit the CPU market, industry sources in Taiwan claim.

In exchange, Intel will allow Via to continue making PC chipsets which use Intel's patented technology, say the sources at PC mainboard manufacturers, who do not wish to be named.

Intel and Via offices had not replied to a request for comment by the end of business hours in Taipei. The two companies typically will not comment on negotiations while they are in progress.

Via earns the bulk of its revenue from chipsets, but its CPUs are generating growing profits. The tiny, cheap CPUs have increasingly been adopted by designers of products like handheld PCs, low-cost notebooks, media servers and other applications where low cost, noise, heat and power consumption are strong selling points. Via's CPUs have begun to take orders from Intel in these niche markets. Via has recorded operating profits of $22.5 million in the first nine months of the year, compared to an $18 million loss last year.

Over the past decade, Via has endured an increasingly bruising battle with Intel over allegations that the smaller firm has illegally used Intel's patented technology in its chipsets. The patents cover details such as the timing of electronic signals that the chipset uses to communicate with the CPU. Intel's legal pressure has had a chilling effect on Via's relationships with the mainboard and PC makers who buy its chipsets, and Via is generally believed to have lost substantial chipset market share as a result of this.

In April 2003, Intel granted Via a four-year licence to use the disputed chipset technology. Although that deal apparently expires next year, Via contends that it is actually effective until the end of March 2008, recent press reports say. When the licensing deal does end, however, it appears Via will no longer be able to make the chipsets that generate the larger part of its revenue.

The suggestion that Via stop making CPUs in exchange for permission to make Intel-compatible chipsets has emerged as part of the ongoing negotiations over an extension of this licensing deal, analysts and other sources say.

Via recently announced a major reorganisation, with CPU and chipset operations now handled by separate business groups. This move would make it easier for Via to spin off the CPU unit as a separate company, although it has announced no plans to do so, and products which combine the CPU and chipset in a single chip might complicate such a move. Via founder and CEO Chen Wenchi now heads the new CPU business group. Ex-Intel employee Chen is generally seen as one of the key driving forces behind Via's success.

Via's revenue so far this year is 32 per cent higher than 2005. The company reported sales of $540m over the first 9 months of the year. However, revenues remain well below a peak of almost $1bn reached six years ago when Via held a larger share of the chipset market.

Notable products based on Via's CPUs include the Samsung Q1P and TabletKiosk EO Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs), a range of thin clients from Hitachi, and a notebook PC from Via's sister company Everex which is described as the “world's most energy efficient notebook”. Another sister company, High-tech Computer (HTC), is also rumoured to be developing a second-generation UMPC which may use a Via CPU. µ

Original Article : Here

I Am Back

2006-11-26T11:48:00.000+05:30

Hi I am back and then i will be posting on this blog once again as my problems are over and i will continue to create and make posts on this and my other blogs ,
The problem with me in the beginning was that my computers harddisk crashed and this caused me to withdraw from this act of posting regularly on my blog as a matter of fact i have got a new hard disk so i am going to post quite a lot of stuff as the day progresses and also the days go on

{ SO I AM BACK ON POSTING IN MY BLOG }

Sorry

2006-10-25T15:49:00.000+05:30

Sorry Folks That I could not post new items due to several problems that did happened with me i will be posting as soon as i get over with those problems in the near future ......................................................................

Till then i am extremly sorry ......

Well Happy Deepawali and ID

IE7/WMP11 Launch News

2006-10-14T07:41:00.000+05:30

According to a new Vista-related press release on Microsoft's site, Windows Media Player 11 will be released to the public on October 24th.

"Windows Media Player 11 will be available via free download beginning Oct. 24 and will enable users to take advantage of an elegant and intuitive user interface, a new level of online store integration, especially with MTV’s URGE service, and improved navigation for larger music libraries."

An obscure post over on the MSDN blogs, states that Microsoft is targeting October 18th as the release date for Internet Explorer 7. Looks as though Microsoft is planning to release IE7 automatically on November 1st:

"The final release of Internet Explorer 7 is targeted for release October 18th …and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates starting November 1st, a few weeks after it’s available for download. Are your Web sites, extensions, and applications ready? Microsoft recommends that Web sites and applications be reviewed and made ready for the release of Internet Explorer 7 this month."

News Related To WMP 11
News related to IE7

Microsoft Stands Firm On PatchGuard

2006-10-14T07:30:00.000+05:30

Microsoft is still talking with partners who are complaining about how the Redmond, Wash. developer has set up Windows Vista's security, but it won't budge from its decision to lock down access to the kernel, a company security manager said Thursday.

"Vista is not completed yet, and we're sitting down with everyone," said Stephen Toulouse, senior product manager with Microsoft's security technology group. "We're still gathering feedback" about Vista's security, he added.

That might seem to leave open the door to changes in how Vista implements the security features that third-party vendors have questioned, including plans to bar access to the kernel in the 64-bit version of the upcoming OS as well as not allow competitors to turn off Vista's Security Center dashboard. Rivals Symantec and McAfee have gone public in the last month with criticisms of both features, and have charged that Microsoft's decisions will make Vista less secure, not safer.

Original News : Here

Microsoft to PC Buyers: Don't Wait for Vista

2006-10-14T07:25:00.000+05:30

If you are contemplating a PC purchase but concerned about waiting for Windows Vista, don't wait, said Microsoft officials at the DigitalLife conference here.

G. Michael Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows Client marketing at Microsoft, opened the DigitalLife conference on Oct. 12 with a keynote in which he laid out the company's plans for the rollout of the Vista operating system and the surrounding ecosystem of hardware and software that will support it.

Supporting Sievert in a demo role, Justin Hutchinson, group product manager, Windows Client, said "one of the things that lights up Windows Vista is the ecosystem of products that support Windows."

Indeed, said Hutchinson, "close to 100 percent of the PCs on store shelves today are Windows Vista capable."

Later Hutchinson said that about 98 percent of the new PCs being sold hold the "Windows Vista Capable" logo and a smaller percentage of those are branded as "Premium Ready."

Original News : Here

IBM Dual-Core Power6 Processor Breaks 4GHz Limit

2006-10-14T07:23:00.000+05:30

IBM is expected to push its next-generation Power6 dual-core processors to run at higher speeds, rather than following the Intel/AMD concept for high-end computing that packs more cores on a die.

The new CPU will run at speeds between 4-5GHz with a total of 8Mbytes L2 cache and a 75Gbyte/second link to external memory, according to EETImes.com.

The Power6 doubles the frequency and bandwidth of the existing Power5 without increasing its power consumption or the depth of its execution pipeline. The move lets IBM ship the chip as a mid-2007 refresh for its existing p-series server line.

"We needed to scale the whole system. When you just pack on more cores and don't scale the cache and memory bandwidth you can't really scale CPU performance as well," said Brad McCredie, a fellow in IBM's Systems and Technology Group.

The Power6 will essentially follow the pattern set by IBM with the Power4 and 5 CPUs. The Power4 was among the first computer CPUs to put two cores on a single die. The company packed two dice on a single module for high-end versions of the chip. Intel likewise plans to use multi-chip modules to pack two dual-core dice on a family of quad-core chip modules it will start introducing in November.

Original News : Here

Seagate offers Maxtor OneTouch with 1.5TB

2006-10-14T07:19:00.000+05:30

Seagate Technology announced today that it will ship a 1.5TB version of its Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo Edition external hard disk drive. The new drive ships this month for $799.99.

The Onetouch III Turbo Edition is pre-formatted for Mac users and comes with FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. It measures 5.4 x 3.9 x 8.5 inches. Inside the drive enclosure are two 750GB hard disk drive mechanisms configured together in a RAID array for a total capacity of 1.5TB. The "OneTouch" refers to the system's ability to back up your Mac's internal hard drive by pressing a button which activates software included with the drive.

Seagate also makes Maxtor OneTouch III systems in other capacities and configurations, including "Mini Editions" for portable users.

Original News: Here

Google Bundles Web 2.0 Productivity Suite

2006-10-12T08:58:00.000+05:30

In yet another step into Microsoft territory, Google on Wednesday released a package of applications that directly compete with the software giant's Office suite. Google is using its popularity in the search engine realm to garner attention for its Web 2.0 applications, Writely and Google Spreadsheets. Writely is a Web-based word processing program targeting Microsoft Word. Google Spreadsheets aims at Excel. Dubbed Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the bundle is available free of charge. The programs allow users to create and share documents online within a Web browser, one of the promises of Web 2.0.

Rumors of a Microsoft Office killer started earlier this year. Google acquired Upstartle, maker of Writely, in March. The software allows you to edit documents online, then publish them via blogs and other Web sites. Writely users can upload Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text documents, or create a document from scratch. A WYSIWYG editor formats and spell-checks the documents online. Google is now dropping the Writely name.

Google Labs launched Google Spreadsheets in June. Google hopes integrating the applications, both of which are still in beta, will make online document sharing and collaboration easier.

Original News : Here

Microsoft Security Updates: October 2006

2006-10-12T08:53:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has just posted their security patch bulletin for the month of October. As usual all required patches for your PC can be caught using Windows Update. A total of 10 patches were released this month including these 6 listed as 'Crtical':

MS06-057: Vulnerability in Windows Shell Could Allow Remote Code Execution (923191) Critical
This update resolves a vulnerability in Windows that could allow remote code execution.

MS06-058: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924163) Critical
This update resolves vulnerabilities in PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution.

MS06-059: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924164) Critical
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Excel that could allow remote code execution.

MS06-060: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924554) Critical
This update resolves several vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word, the most critical of which could allow remote code execution.

MS06-061: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924191) Critical
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Windows that could allow remote code execution.

MS06-062: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (922581) Critical
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Office that could allow remote code execution.

Please check this out for more detailed information regarding these Downloads and Updates

Check : Microsoft Windows Update
This also : Microsoft Security Bulletin: October 2006

Samsung to sell 10-megapixel camera phone

2006-10-12T08:50:00.000+05:30

Samsung Electronics will put a 10-megapixel camera phone on the market in South Korea shortly.The mobile phone was first shown at Cebit in Germany in March this year and was originally due to launch in the second quarter.

Like some of the company's previous phones the SCH-B600 is styled to look like a conventional digital still camera from one side and a bar-type mobile phone from the other side. It has a 3x optical zoom lens like those typically found in digital still cameras, auto focus, manual focus, continuous and time-delay picture taking and a flash.

Other features include a tuner for South Korea's TU Media satellite multimedia service, Bluetooth and MP3 player, business card reader and TV-output.

It will cost 900,000 won ($950) in South Korea and Samsung said it won't be selling it in other markets.The phone is the latest in a line of high megapixel camera phones from Samsung. The company launched a 5-megapixel camera phone in October 2004, a 7-megapixel phone in July 2005 and an 8-megapixel model in November last year.

Original News : Here

Adobe makes mobile acquisition

2006-10-12T08:48:00.000+05:30

Adobe has acquired vector graphics technology developed by Actimagine.

Actimagine develops, patents, and licenses software solutions in the field of video and interactive vector graphics. The acquisition will extend the reach of Adobe mobile technologies, including Adobe Flash Lite, to high-volume mass-market devices, Adobe explained in a press release.

Under the terms of the agreement, Actimagine will also incorporate existing and future versions of Adobe Flash Lite technology into its service offerings.

"Adobe is committed to providing the technologies needed by operators worldwide to develop, deliver, and display engaging mobile experiences on a broad set of mobile devices," said Al Ramadan, senior vice president, Mobile and Device Solutions Business Unit at Adobe.

Andre Pagnac, CEO of Actimagine explains: "We intend to combine Flash with Mobiclip, our software video codec, to deliver most enjoyable user experiences."

Original News : Here

Ballmer: Windows Live Is Top Microsoft Priority

2006-10-12T08:43:00.000+05:30

ORLANDO, Fla.—Windows Live is the most important initiative at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, told the audience at the annual Gartner Symposium and IT Expo here on Oct. 10.

"We're in a transition to software that is live. It will be click to run, like a Web site," said Ballmer. "We believe in evolving to click to run."

Windows Live is a growing collection of service add-ons for Windows. Some of the services are shipping, such as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Expo online classifieds. Nearly a dozen services are currently in beta test on the Windows Live Ideas Web site.

"The most important thing is the Live platform. The next level of consumerization is coming from Internet services and Internet delivery," said Ballmer, whose comments dovetailed with a theme espoused by Gartner analysts at this year's conference: that consumer technologies such as search, podcasting, on-demand video and blogging will seep into enterprise IT infrastructures in the years ahead.

PointerGartner analysts say consumer technology will overtake corporations. Click here to read more.Ballmer said the move to an online experience for the user does not diminish the need for powerful client systems, which are the bread-and-butter of Microsoft's software business.

Gartner analysts posed questions to Ballmer on a number of topics, particularly the forthcoming Vista release of Windows. Ballmer said the lesson his company has learned from the repeated delays that have plagued the release of Vista, once known as "Longhorn," is the need to reduce complexity in the development process.

"We learned we have to innovate and integrate, but not necessarily at the same time. There was too much new invention to be integrated," he said.

In the area of enterprise applications, Ballmer noted that Microsoft is working to release a hosted CRM (customer relationship management) service. He also said Microsoft is working on a common code base for the ERP (enterprise resource planning) products in the company's Dynamics product line—essentially what had been called "Project Green" a couple of years ago.

Ballmer also stressed that Microsoft will continue to invest in multiple core businesses: entertainment, online, enterprise and desktop. In addition, he touted the company's legendary tenacity if success does not come quickly. "The bone doesn't fall out of our mouth easily. We keep coming and coming and coming and coming and coming and coming."

Original News : Here

Microsoft delays Mac Office 2007 release

2006-10-11T21:34:00.000+05:30

The next version of Microsoft Office for Mac won't ship until the second half of 2007, the company has confirmed.

The Courier Mail reports Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (MacBU) product manager Mary Starman revealed the news, which means the Mac version of the office productivity suite will lag eight months behind the Windows version of the software (scheduled to ship January 2007).

When it does arrive, Microsoft promises a unified Mac OS X look and feel, interface improvements and yet more enhanced features on the Universal software suite.

Microsoft has also published several more articles on its MacBU blog, including a little biographical information about the developers working on the company's Mac products.

Original News: Here

Yahoo Creating World's Biggest Time Capsule

2006-10-11T07:45:00.000+05:30

Yahoo is encouraging people from around the world to contribute to what it is calling the largest time capsule in the history of the world. "It will be fascinating to see what people submit as their part of this 2006 snapshot, which will be shared with generations to come," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief of Yahoo.

Yahoo has launched what it ambitiously calls the largest time capsule in the history of the world. It is encouraging people from around the globe to contribute personal photos, stories, thoughts, ideas, poems, home movies -- the flotsam of every day life, in other words -- to its site, timecapsule.yahoo.com. The point, as with all time capsules, is to illustrate life in 2006.

Submissions can be made on such topics as love, anger, fun, sorrow, faith, beauty, past, now, hope and "you." Yahoo will then weave the contributed multimedia content into a single piece of digital art online. At the end of the project, the content will be saved in a digital archive and sealed, to be opened at Yahoo corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., on the company's 25th anniversary in 2020. It will also provide copies of the content to the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings archives in Washington, D.C.

"It will be fascinating to see what people submit as their part of this 2006 snapshot, which will be shared with generations to come," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief of Yahoo.
Historian's Dream

Indeed, that glimpse into everyday life 20, 50 or 100 years ago has fascinated both hobbyists and professional historians since the first time capsule was buried, most likely in a building. The International Time Capsule Society, which is currently setting up a registry of time capsules, estimates there are approximately 10,000 of them worldwide.

According to its Web site, burying time capsules is an outgrowth of an ancient Masonic cornerstone-laying ceremony during which the mason would place memorabilia inside building cornerstones. In 1793, George Washington, who was also a Mason, buried today's equivalent of a time capsule when laying the original cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol, the society reports.

Many of these capsules have unfortunately been lost -- or rather, never found -- it also said. Washington's, for instance, has never turned up even though the Capitol has been extensively renovated and expanded over the centuries.

Others have been lost due to less romantic -- at least, to a historian -- reasons. In 1953, Washington state celebrated its territorial centennial by burying a two ton time capsule on the state capital campus in Olympia, the society said. Unfortunately, the legislature failed to approve funds to mark the site, and the capsule was lost.
Capsules Online

A more recent example is e-timecapsule.com, initially created with the goal of launching materials into outer space. This summer, the project was granted permission to bury the capsule at Stonehenge in Great Britain, said David Ryan, president and creator of Electronic Time Capsule, a service that provides users with a way to develop their own time capsules to be delivered to their children or another person. Getting permission couldn't have been easy, but devotees of such projects apparently reach into the Prime Minister's office, he added.

With the advent of electronic media has come a new variant on time capsules, Ryan told TechNewsWorld. Projects like Yahoo's or e-timecapsule.com's have only a limited appeal -- largely to historians or social scientists. However, interest is growing among ordinary people who want to preserve glimpses of their lives for recipients in the future, according to market studies Ryan commissioned.

This, of course, is his vocation -- but it is also his avocation. "I write messages on my thoughts about the war in Iraq to my daughter, who is now three. She can then read [the messages] when she is 25 and is able to digest the information." Military combatants are driven by the same instinct, he said. "They write letters to their kids and instruct them not to open the letter until a certain date.

Original News :Here

Group warns of more junk e-mail

2006-10-11T07:41:00.000+05:30

The anti-spam group Spamhaus Project warned more junk e-mail could be on the way as it prepares to lose its domain name thanks to a company it has accused of sending spam.

Executives at the U.K.-based Spamhaus Project said Monday they expect a federal judge in Chicago will soon sign an order that would suspend the domain spamhaus.org because the group has refused to recognize the U.S. court and comply with a $11.7 million judgment.

Spamhaus warned the order could unleash up to 50 billion junk e-mails a day on computer users worldwide, though legal and technology experts were skeptical the effect would lead to millions of clogged inboxes.
According to Spamhaus, more than 650 million Internet users -- including those at the White House, the U.S. Army and the European Parliament -- benefit from Spamhaus' "blacklist" of spammers that helps identify which messages to block, send to a "junk" folder or accept. Losing the domain name would make it more difficult for service providers and others to obtain the lists.

"If the domain got suspended, it would be an enormous hit for the Net," said Steve Linford, Spamhaus' chief executive officer. "It would create an enormous amount of damage on the Internet."

But experts said even if the order filed Friday is executed, it's unlikely people would suddenly see much more junk mail. Experts note Spamhaus' blacklist already is widely available online, and a suspension at most would provide a hiccup Web-savvy systems administrators could easily work around.

"Suspending a domain name isn't the same as suspending a Web site," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard and Oxford universities. "Spamhaus is intended for use by people who run mail servers -- in other words, technically inclined people. If Spamhaus wanted to, it could simply pick a new domain name, or use no name at all."

Domain names are merely shortcuts to access a site's true, numeric Internet address. Spamhaus could simply distribute that address instead of the domain name.

And it's not even clear U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras could easily order such a suspension because the Domain Name System is in the hands of organizations and companies that are not parties to the lawsuit. They could challenge any such attempt.

Spamhaus CEO Linford said the group has backup plans in place to keep spam filters functioning, but alerting its customers to change the address their system uses to reference the blacklist would be daunting.

Linford said "mail servers will simply fall over" from a deluge of spam if the filters stop working.

Wheeling-based e360 Insight sought the order after Spamhaus refused to comply with a September ruling that required it to pay $11.7 million and post a notice on its Web site stating that e360 Insight is not a spammer.

Spamhaus officials did not bother defending themselves in the case, arguing that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction and that doing so would open the organization to a tidal wave of lawsuits by spammers that want to fight those who block their e-mails.

Bart Loethen, a lawyer for e360, insists his client does not engage in spamming and said he had to go after Spamhaus' domain until it removes the company from the blacklist.

"They are thumbing their nose at an order of the court," Loethen said. "What else can we do?"

Original News : Here

Support ending for Windows XP SP1

2006-10-11T07:25:00.000+05:30

Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP1a on Tuesday, leaving people no option but to upgrade to Service Pack 2 if they wish to continue to receive crucial components, including security software.

The move to drop support for SP1 is in line with Microsoft's stated strategy for support. According to its guidelines, Microsoft guarantees to provide "mainstream support" for a full product for five years, but will only guarantee to support a service pack for 12 months after the launch of the next version of that pack.

SP1 shipped in September 2002. SP2 was released in September 2004.

There's little reason for anyone to still be running SP1; SP2 contained a range of improvements to XP's security. People can check which version they are running by right-clicking on the My Computer desktop icon and then selecting properties.

The ending of support for SP1 will help Microsoft to clear the decks for the arrival of Vista, which is expected to be released to business customers next month and to consumers in January.

In July, Microsoft ended support for Windows 98 and ME.

Original News: Here

Better Windows security keeps Apple safer: Gartner

2006-10-11T07:21:00.000+05:30

Research group Gartner has said that Mac OS X users are now safer from a mass attack -- such as Blaster on Windows -- than they were two years ago, partly because Microsoft has closed so many holes in its ubiquitous platform.

Apple Mac users, who seem to be virtually immune from viruses, should still take care when installing software or applications from untrusted sources, according to Gartner.

In March 2005, in a report titled "Don't Assume Your Macs Are Immune to Security Flaws", Gartner vice president and research fellow Martin Reynolds warned businesses reliant on Mac systems to beware of "spyware infestations" and highlighted the potential of a hybrid virus that would attack both OS X and Windows.

On Friday, Reynolds said that 18 months on from his original prediction -- although OS X was far less likely to be the target of a hybrid worm -- Mac users were still vulnerable to keyloggers and other forms of spyware.

"Two years ago, a hybrid worm would have been a huge threat -- but the worm writers aren't that smart. With Windows largely closed up, mass attacks have stopped," he told ZDNet Australia in an e-mail interview.

"The Mac alone does not have a dense enough population to support a mass attack -- only one in 50 or so PCs is a Mac. Therefore, the risk of a mass attack is minimal. It is the targeted attacks that are a concern."

According to Reynolds, Apple's move to Intel means OS X now shares some common code with Windows, which could also open the platform to vulnerabilities.

"Moving to x86 means that the Mac shares some common code with the PC -- example, network drivers. These drivers opened up a target attack weakness in the Mac that was discovered because the drivers have common components," said Reynolds.

Spyware continues to be a concern for Mac users, according to Reynolds, who said that although OS X provided decent protection for its users, it could be overridden.

"Targeted attacks are difficult to prevent because many of them look like something that a user would do. The Mac OS puts good security around user activity, but this can still be overridden.

"Bottom line: pay attention to odd behaviour from any computer, it could be a hacker after your stuff. Don't just authorise anything that asks, think about it first," he added.

Last month, antivirus firm Symantec published its 10th Internet Threat Report and quietly admitted a few days later that its predictions of increasing Mac-targeted spyware threats have not been realised.

Original News : Here

Microsoft's IE 7 May Beat Mozilla's Firefox 2.0 To Market

2006-10-11T07:18:00.000+05:30

Mozilla Corp. has released Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2), but may be beat in the race to final by Microsoft, which said that Internet Explorer 7 would ship in October.

Firefox 2.0 RC2 went live late Friday, with the update pushed automatically to users of earlier editions of Firefox 2.0, the open-source browser's first major update since 1.5 in November 2005. Others can download RC2 in versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 39 localized editions, including ones for Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Mongolian, Russian, and Slovakian speakers.

However, at least one more release candidate will be issued by Mozilla. "There are a handful of security and stability bugs we'd like to see get in before the final FF2 release. Thus we'll be doing a third release candidate," wrote Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's director of engineering, in an entry on the developer's message forum.

But while Mozilla has not set a final release date for Firefox 2.0 -- on this calendar, it was once pegged to late October, but was withdrawn weeks ago -- rival Microsoft said that it will ship IE 7, the first significant upgrade to its browser since 2001, this month.

Original News : Here

Microsoft's German CEO quits

2006-10-11T07:13:00.000+05:30

The head of Microsoft's German subsidiary has quit over differences with the US headquarters.
Jürgen Gallmann, CEO of Microsoft Deutschland - one of the software giant's largest subsidiaries - resigned on Friday. In an email he sent to employees, the executive complained of Redmond imposing increasing restrictions on the German operations and showing little interest in local requirements.Microsoft has said only that Gallmann had asked to be released from his contract due to differences in views about the future strategy of Microsoft Germany. Gallmann will be replaced immediately by Klaus Holse Andersen, the current VP of Microsoft Business Solutions, who will report directly to Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International. A former manager with IBM, Gallmann joined Microsoft in 2002. Under his direction, the German subsidiary increased its workforce from around 1,500 to more than 2,000.

Original News :Here

Intel eyes increased stake in Nvidia

2006-10-09T21:10:00.000+05:30

Intel is considering increasing its stake in graphics technology company Nvidia, in order to counter the proposed merger of AMD and ATI, according to a report by Digitimes.

The chip maker's share price rose by eight per cent on Wednesday on the back of speculation that it may attempt to acquire Nvidia. Intel currently owns around nine per cent of the company's stock.

However a takeover is thought to be unlikely. Instead Intel may simply buy additional shares and seek to form a strategic alliance with Nvidia.

'The partnership would imply that Nvidia decreases product developments for the AMD platform and devotes more efforts to IGP (integrated graphics processor) chipsets for the Intel platform,' Digitimes said, citing sources.

AMD announced in July that is had made a $5.4 billion offer for ATI; the two companies are Intel and Nvidia's main rivals in, respectively, the computer processor and graphics processor markets.

News Source : Here

Kaspersky defends Microsoft, refutes Vista security lockout claims

2006-10-09T18:39:00.000+05:30

Russian security vendor Kapersky has jumped to the defence of Microsoft, refuting claims by rival security vendors Symantec and McAfee that Microsoft is using its monopoly to lock them out of access to the Vista operating system kernel.

According to a Reuters report, Kapersky co-founder and chief executive Natalya Kapersky said that from what the company had seen of Vista, Microsoft was not blocking access to the core.

Bothe Symantec and McAfee, the two largest security software vendors in the world, claim that the Patchguard feature of Vista, which locks up the kernel to prevent modification of the core code, would not make exceptions form security companies so that they could protect the operating system from the inside out.

Both McAfee and Symantec say that Patchguard has already been hacked at least once.

The two security vendors have become increasingly vocal against Microsoft and Vista since the Redmond software company entered their security space with its Windows Live OneCare security suite, significantly undercutting their prices in the process.

Microsoft has answered the two major security vendors' accusations, saying that it will continue to work hand-in-hand with computer security vendors on Vista.

Original News: Here

Disney exec talks Apple iTunes deal

2006-10-09T18:37:00.000+05:30

Apple's deal to sell TV shows from Disney through iTunes was agreed in great secrecy but was the first definite deal for television in the digital age.

TV Week has reported an interview with Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney, who Apple CEO Steve Jobs first approached to secure the landmark Disney deal.

Jobs visited Sweeney in her office to demonstrate the service and the video-enable iPod, claiming the device "would revolutionise the television industry".

His visit came as Sweeney was seeking a strategy to help Disney compete with piracy, which she knew was manifesting itself in the form of its television shows appearing on file-sharing sites within hours of broadcast.

"There's a competitor you can't see, and that's piracy," Sweeney explains.

Apple's demand that the deal be arranged in secrecy did cause problems between Disney and its affiliates, Sweeney explains, but the company is doing work to repair the damage - and to explain the reality of television in the digital landscape, the need to 'monetise' content online.

Sweeney descrines the deal as a sea-change for media, saying: "People had been talking about digital media for so long, but nothing had happened."

She also confirmed that Disney has experienced no cannibalisation of its original audience through its online distribution deals. She also predicts more moves in terms of delivering television shows to mobile devices.

Microsoft and Apple eyed for AJAX alliance

2006-10-09T18:34:00.000+05:30

In February, a group of technology vendors, including BEA Systems, Google, IBM, and Oracle, formed the OpenAjax Alliance, with the goal of promoting the popular AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) web development technique. Since then, more vendors, such as Sun Microsystems, have joined, and the alliance has launched its OpenAjax Hub project to boost interoperability among AJAX libraries. One of the founders of OpenAjax was David Boloker, who holds the titles of distinguished engineer and CTO of emerging internet technologies at the IBM software group. He also serves on the alliance's steering committee. Infoworld editor at large Paul Krill spoke with Boloker at the AJAXWorld Conference and Expo last week about AJAX, the security issues around it, and the possibilities of other vendors such as Microsoft and Apple joining the alliance.

Infoworld: Why did you found OpenAjax?

Boloker: If you go back nine months, the key problem that folks were having was, one: What exactly is the definition of AJAX? The second problem was: How do you get a message out to all parties that would be cross-vendor? The third thing was: From a technology standpoint, how can you basically start looking at what was going to happen when looking across toolkits?

So you can have one person's UI widget working with your UI widget, and these are all in JavaScript. And each and every one of the toolkits today, actually, expects to own the whole page; so they're going to basically take control, and expect to; then, when you leave their page, they lose control. Well, what really is going to have to happen is, you may like someone's Accordion control from one toolkit and want to use it, for example, with Tibco's. So one of the things which we started working on was something called OpenAjax Hub inside of OpenAjax, which is aimed at allowing that interoperability, and that's going to be an open source plan.

So those were the reasons why we started OpenAjax. Now, when you start looking at the bigger picture here and at what IBM is doing in this space, you'll see that it is in parallel to starting OpenAjax; what we did at IBM is, we started a project inside IBM to work on trying to bring down the level of complexity of writing and debugging applications, AJAX applications in particular. And the way we did it was, we built a piece of code called the AJAX Tooling Framework which went on top of Eclipse, which is the core foundation for tooling that we are using, and we can demo the AJAX Tooling Framework with the whole idea behind it [being] to bring down that level of not only complexity but also to allow someone to write a lot more AJAX code in a much shorter amount of time and get it published faster.

Infoworld: What about Microsoft - which has its AJAX technology, Atlas - not being a part of OpenAjax? Are there any more overtures being made? Are they just going to sit on the sidelines like they seem to do with other industry initiatives, like Eclipse? What's going on there with Microsoft?

Boloker: I actually just spoke with Microsoft yesterday about joining OpenAjax, and they've taken back the details and are thinking about it, and they'll get back to us.

Infoworld: What do you think the impact is of Microsoft not participating? You have this massive PC software company, and they're not participating. Do you think it's detrimental for them to not participate, or does it not make a difference?

Boloker: Well it makes a difference because I'd actually like to have them at the table. They have some very, very skilled developers, and they've thought about the area a lot, just as Tibco has and IBM has and JackBe has and others. It would be actually great if we actually can get everyone to the table, and I'm really hoping that we can do it.

Infoworld: Do you think you will?

Boloker: Optimistic.

Infoworld: But they have not made any commitments to joining at this point?

Boloker: None. They're thinking about it at this point.

Infoworld: Are there any other major companies on the sidelines? I can't think of any right now.

Boloker: There's plenty of people that are in discussions with us, and those people in discussions with us are folks like Apple. Let's see, who else would be in it? We're looking at Cisco as another. Cisco is not core to the web piece of this. The other companies are mostly in Asia.

Infoworld: What about the issues of security around AJAX? Apparently there are a lot of them. What are you doing about that?

Boloker: Security around AJAX is actually security around the web. So there's many sets of issues here, and one of the things which we're actually going to cover inside of OpenAjax is a whole discussion on security, at the meeting at the end of the week. And one of the topics is not only from a web standpoint of cross-application scripting, which has been a problem in the web for many, many years, when you have cross-application scripting between servers.

But this whole concept of when you're doing mashups, if you're doing mashups all within your establishment or customer shop or you have trusted parties, mashups are secure. It's when you do unsecure mashups between, say, myself and someone I don't really know; that other person's JavaScript could be misformed, or it could try to take control of my machine. And this is really where a question of needing to do some technology work between ourselves, the companies, as well as maybe even in the W3C to look at the question: How do I basically bring an access list to give someone approval to use the mashup or not to use the mashup?

Infoworld: Apparently there are issues with inexperienced developers, there are issues with the cross-site scripting, there are issues with web services. Even Jesse James Garrett who founded the term AJAX said there are a lot of issues and we're going to have to almost patch them one by one. So how can people rely on AJAX if it's got all these security issues? I talked to one AJAXWorld attendee yesterday, and she said she wasn't using AJAX yet, but the one thing she knew was that it apparently had a lot of security concerns.

Boloker: So there are security concerns. Actually, if you look at the security concerns you have when doing web services, there actually was work done for web services in the area of WS-Security. A lot of folks who are looking at this are looking at it for the first time. Well, the folks that actually have looked at service-oriented architecture said, "Well, if I'm actually going to start calling something, I want to, No. 1, ensure that I can call the resource, and then if I can call the resource that I'm actually entitled to, go deeper and actually access the data." The second piece of this is this cross-site scripting; this has been a known problem in the web, and it's a server-side problem that people have been dealing with.

Now, the other issues that you start looking at in the area of mashups, again, this is - you're absolutely correct. You have people that are writing JavaScript that don't really know how to write it, and if you create a mashup, you could end up with a serious problem. Now, if you look at the mashups that have been created up to this point, they've been done by very highly skilled and very knowledgeable web programmers who know what they're doing. Now, one of the reasons why we founded OpenAjax was this exact problem was when Scott Dietzen, CTO of Zimbra, who helped co-found OpenAjax, and I looked at this problem in late 2005, we pretty much decided that the number of problems that would be confronting people, you'd probably find one in 40 developers actually having all of the right capabilities to actually write good AJAX and secure AJAX.

Infoworld: So what are you going to do?

Boloker: The first thing we started doing is we're attacking the problem not one at a time, we're doing it in multiple fronts. The first thing was, How do we basically build AJAX, and how do we debug AJAX? And how do we see what's going from the client side of this to the server? And that's what IBM was working on, and Bob Goodman, a senior programmer at IBM, was doing with the AJAX Tooling Framework.

The second side of this is that we needed to get the knowledge out about what are the issues. You don't want to scare people away, but at the same token, you need to basically educate them. And this, again, was part of this whole side of what OpenAJAX was about. The third side of this is, How do you then look at it from an industry standpoint of coming out with the best practices? So this is a document that people [would] write to give to AJAX programmers. And then the fourth thing is to look for the technology side of it. How can we basically start securing the technology? And that work is under way right now. And while there are no great answers at this exact second, there's a very good understanding of the problem, and people are discussing what's the right way to do it.

Infoworld: What is the attraction of AJAX?

Boloker: AJAX enables you in a web browser to actually have some of the same qualities of an interaction that you used to have only in a fat client setting.

Infoworld: How does it do that?

Boloker: Well, what happens is, AJAX is actually, if you want to look at a set of standards that were to form a programming model, and those standards start off with DHTML and JavaScript and XML and there's Cascading Style Sheets, there's web services, there's all of these things that are falling into this, and each and every one of these is a standard. And the use of them all together creates a toolkit. And today there are probably 200-some-odd toolkits, between closed source and open source, and each of the toolkits does things very differently. So the first thing you have to worry about is, How does it work within Firefox? How does it work within Internet Explorer? These are all different. And then, once you get beyond that, how do I get it render effectively? Then you can start looking at, well, What are the qualities of the AJAX implementation? Can I do drag-and-drops? Can you do cut and paste, for example, from the browser and move it somewhere else? But the key thing you start looking at is, if you [look at] a great example of an AJAX application, and there are many on the web today, there is one that started off with the folks from a company acquired by Yahoo called Oddpost. And the Yahoo Beta Mail actually uses Oddpost, some of the core pieces. There's a group of developers that did very early work on finding how do I get a very, very high-quality Outlook-type mail client into a browser? And they basically were acquired by Yahoo and became Beta Mail. And if you look at what goes on inside Yahoo Mail, the first thing that's so apparent to you is you have the full services of a drag-and-drop all within the browser. The second thing you start looking at is the setting that you're having is they allow you to do RSS feeds. You can look at RSS and Atom feeds. I mean, they're just one example.

Infoworld: Before AJAX, or theoretically before AJAX, you had Flash. Do you see Flash as a competitor, as a complementary? It just seems like it is kind of a competitive technology even if Adobe says it's not.

Boloker: I was going to tell you to ask Adobe what their opinion was. Flash is yet another example of a web-based technology, and there are reasons why customers might want to use Flash to have an environment, a full environment, and you know there are reasons why people might want to do something just purely in DHTML and JavaScript. I mean the first obvious reason is DHTML and JavaScript [are] installed on everyone else's desktop today and is immediately used, whereas Flash was a plug-in. Now, that plug-in happens to be pretty much on most people's machines.

Infoworld: AJAX is a technique. Is there going to be an AJAX 2.0, 3.0? Do you see an evolution of it, or is it just that this is the technique for doing something and if you get too far away from it, then it's not AJAX anymore?

Boloker: Well, it's a programming paradigm, and with all programming paradigms, whether it's AJAX 2.0 or AJAX 3.0, it started off as AJAX. And it'll always be AJAX. And what you're going to do is learn, as an industry we're all going to learn nuances to do something easier or make it much more secure, the points you brought up before.

Infoworld: So OpenAjax is not going to come out with the next version of AJAX, right?

Boloker: No, OpenAjax is definitely not going to come out with another version of AJAX. OpenAjax is really going to be looking at [this] from a full industry partnership on how to move AJAX forward. Now, one might say that as we start looking at AJAX Hub and things like that, that people might say that, well, that's another version of AJAX. But in reality it's the same version of AJAX. We're just working to build it out.

Infoworld: Any final thoughts that you want to add?

Boloker: I think my only final words really come back to, I've been working in technology for many years, and as with any technology that's coming on the scenes, there are initially problems. Some of the problems have to do with, first of all, education of the audience, and the second thing has to do always with security, manageability, scalability, and things like that. Our friends from Google proved that AJAX can scale through Google Maps. For that matter, in a lot of cases I think that they've proved that you can run a pretty secure shop with AJAX. There are security problems that the industry.

Original News :Here

Mozilla Officially Releases Firefox 2.0 RC2

2006-10-09T18:26:00.000+05:30

On Saturday Mozilla officially released RC2 of Firefox 2.0, Neowin originally reported the release a day earlier on Friday the 6th.

Mozilla Firefox, the popular web browser, caused a stir with the original release, but apart from minor changes, visual improvements and security fixes, there haven’t been a wide range of new features since the original 1.x release. This is all about to change, with the forthcoming release of Firefox 2.0, planned for October/November 2006.

This is Release Candidate 2 and the second public preview of Firefox 2.0, along with a snapshot of the forthcoming new features. It must be noted that this is only a beta and should be used for testing-purposes only. Many of the existing themes and extensions are not operating within this beta release.

Current new 2.0 features include anti-phishing support, useful for acknowledging the difference between a legitimate website and a fake site set up for the purposes of obtaining your personal information.

Download Mozilla 2.0 RC2 @Mozilla

MS to Offer Free, Discounted Vista

2006-10-09T18:14:00.000+05:30

Microsoft is set to offer either free or discounted Vista upgrades to those who purchase new computers during the holiday season, press reports indicate. To qualify for the coupons, a PC would need to be purchased after October 28 of this year, and the upgrade would be good through March 15, 2007.

The Redmond company would not confirm the program publicly, other than saying "we're working with partners on this." Reports indicate that the free or discounted upgrade would be based on the version of operarting system installed.

For example, those who have Widows XP Professional, XP Tablet PC Edition, and XP x64 Edition would be entitled to the free upgrade. Those using Windows XP Home would be permitted to upgrade to Vista Basic for $49 and Premium for $79. No upgrade price was specified for Media Center Edition.

"I like this move on Microsoft's part, even though they haven't confirmed it. It should help boost holiday sales of computers," Microsoft MVP Terri Straton wrote for The Hive. " People will be able to buy Vista-ready computers confidently, knowing that they won't have to pay full price to upgrade when Vista is released."

Windows Vista continues to progress towards a release to manufacturing, possibly as early as next month. Microsoft will make available Release Candidate 2, numbered build 5744, of Vista on Friday to testers and select CPP participants.

Original News : Here

IE7 Is Coming This Month...Are you Ready?

2006-10-09T18:10:00.000+05:30

IE7 Is Coming This Month...Are you Ready?

The final release of IE7 is fast approaching … and I mean really fast … and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it’s available for download. We want to ensure that you are ready and the information below will help get you there.

Compatibility with sites, extensions and applications has been a very high priority for us as we develop new features, enhance the existing features and move the platform forward to be more secure and standards compliant. We are continually listening to feedback from our customers, partners and leaders in the industry to resolve major compatibility issues to ensure our common customers have a great experience with IE7. As we make key improvements in areas such as layout and security, some changes need to be made by site owners to work smoothly with IE7. We have produced detailed documentation, tools and other resources to assist site, extension and application owners in their testing and development efforts to ensure they are compatible with IE7. We have also proactively worked with hundreds of companies to resolve issues that were reported through our beta testing to ensure those issues were resolved before IE7 is released.

These efforts have been ongoing since last year and have been extremely successful but we can’t ensure 100% compatibility without your help. We need you to test and ensure your sites, extensions, and applications are ready for IE7. We strongly encourage you to do the following ASAP:

Download, install and test your products with IE7 RC 1 –This is the fastest and best way to test for compatibility issues.

Download the IE7 Readiness Toolkit - This toolkit pulls together a number of important resources to help you prepare for IE7:

Developer and IT Pro readiness check lists,
Detailed documentation on important changes in IE7,
Testing and debugging guidance,
Tools for testing, debugging and investigating issues,
And more…

Download and use the Application Compatibility Toolkit – Helps test browser-based applications to ensure they work with IE7.

Visit the Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Center – You will find an array of important information for developers.

Use the Information Index for Internet Explorer7 – Think of this as a table of contents linking you to documentation, blog posts, whitepapers and other information on IE7.

Read the IE Team Blog – Use the search feature on the right to find previous posts on almost any topic you can think of with regard to IE7.

What if my organization is not going to be ready for IE7 in time?

Organizations that are using Automatic Updates in their environments can block the AU deployment of IE7. For more details check out the “Options for Blocking Automatic Delivery” section of our Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7 article.

We hope that you are as ready and excited about IE7 as we are. If you have feedback or encounter any issues, check out the IE7 Support page for FAQs, Release Notes, and feedback options.

Original News :Here

Sorry

2006-10-09T17:54:00.000+05:30

Sorry Folks this week has been bad for my blog as this is a technology blog this means that i have to update it regularly . But when my time comes to update this blog at that time the light goes and then you all can imagine that how does it feel and this is why this blog was not updated yesterday and also today morning so this does not mean that i willnot update this blog . I will but subject to certain conditions that i need light to post and also to see my blog running .This week was a interruption and therefore i am extremly sorry. I will update it regularly as per my schedule .

BCA LUTech

Intellitxt Links

2006-10-09T17:46:00.000+05:30

About Intellitxt

What is it?
The green links are provided by a product called Intellitxt, it scans each page for both appropriate advertiser key-words and contextual relevancy. If a match is found, a small number of words can be subtly enhanced directly within the page. You will recognize the keywords by the green double underline that distinguishes them from other types of link.

How does it work?
A reader's mouse passing over any highlighted key-words will be presented with a Tool Tip describing an advertiser's product or service. If the reader then chooses to find out more information they can click on the key-word and it will act like an ordinary link taking them to a page belonging to the advertising company. For every click on a highlighted key-word, we will receive a small payment. If the reader is not interested in the advertiser's product or service, they simply read on, with little or no disruption.

Keyword relevancy
The key-word list has been chosen so as to be as relevant as possible to a technology site. For example, words like "database server" and "personal firewall" will be considered relevant. Words like "community" and "professional" won't be considered relevant to turn into advertiser links no matter how often they might appear.

Why is this being done?
Tom's Hardware Guide remains free to our readers mainly because we want as many people as possible to be able to benefit from all the great content that we have put together. Whilst the site is free to you, we invest time and money in terms of technology and personnel. As we're sure many will appreciate, there is pressure for us to generate revenue from advertising to cover all of the costs, and this is an opportunity for us to do just that.

What do you need to do?
Nothing. Continue to use the site as you've always used it. If you see any advertiser's products or services that interest you, feel free to click on the link. Hopefully you'll benefit, the advertiser will benefit, and we will benefit too. If not, don't scroll over the keywords and don't click and your reading experience will be uninterrupted.

Feedback
We'd like to hear from you about the service. We certainly expect there to be some concerns, and not everyone will like or use the service. In our experience of introducing new features, some will absolutely hate it, and they'll tell us all about it, and more! As usual, we'll try to respond to all your concerns, although can't promise individual responses. We hope and expect the vast majority will see it as an additional service for those people who are interested, and regardless, will not interrupt your reading experience.

Q&A
What if you can't see it?
The Intellitxt software only operates on Internet Explorer browsers, version 5 and above, Netscape 7.2 and above, andFirefox .8 and above. So, Mac users and Opera lovers will just have to believe them that it's there!

Can the user choose which key words are highlighted?
Nope. And neither can we. A computer program ranks the key-words by "relevancy" and "click price" to determine the most appropriate and highest yielding text link to serve.

What are the keywords?
There are thousands of them. As previously noted, the keyword list has been specifically chosen to be relevant and useful for technology sites such as ours.

Who are the advertisers?
There are currently thousands of advertisers that are using keywords to market themselves. Companies like Google have over 90,000 different advertisers who are spending millions of dollars a year to buy keywords. The advertisers that you might see on this site have been tailored to be relevant for the technology sector so they will likely be familiar to you.

How many highlighted keywords per post?
We will cap the highlighted keywords to a maximum of five per page. Many articles will have zero keywords highlighted as they won't be relevant, some articles may have one or two highlighted words. Some pages may have many more than five relevant keywords, however only five will ever be highlighted.

Haven't I seen this somewhere else?
Yes there are a number of other websites also involved in this program so you may have seen this type of advertising before.

Microsoft Office System 2007 Beta Ends

2006-10-07T08:12:00.000+05:30

We are thrilled with the incredible excitement around the upcoming 2007 Microsoft Office system as is evident by over 3 million people installing the Beta 2 and later Beta2TR builds. With your help, we have far exceeded our technical participation goals.

At this time, we are pleased to announce that the 2007 Office system will be released to manufacturing (RTM) in the next few weeks. We thank you for your participation in the planning, development, and testing of this new release. As we approach the end of the beta testing phase of Office 2007, we would like to make you aware of several upcoming events that will affect you.

10/25 - Office Preview website closes down
On October 25, the Office Preview site will be closed down. Since this is the home of all Beta2TR product downloads, you will not be able to download Beta2TR after 10/25. All other information currently found on the Office Preview site will be migrated to the Office Online website (accessible via online help from within Office 2007 applications). This includes the FAQ, Product Guide, Top 10, Overview, the Demo tab, the New UI tab for programs, and other related information.

10/28 - Technical support gets a new home
Beginning October 28, support for Office 2007 products will transition from the Beta support newsgroups staffed by Office employees to the in-market product support provided by Microsoft Customer Service and Support. Starting 10/28, you will need to use http://support.microsoft.com to receive support for Office 2007 products.

10/30 - BetaPlace website and support newsgroups close down
The BetaPlace website (http://beta.microsoft.com) will close down on 10/30, signaling the end of the formal beta testing phase of the 2007 Microsoft Office system technical beta. At that time, the betanews.microsoft.com support newsgroups will also be closed down.

10/31 - SharePoint team sites decommissioned
The team site that you have been using at [name].spbeta.iponet.net will be shut down on October 31. If you have any important files or information stored on your team site, you need to store a local copy before 10/31, as all data on your site will be destroyed when the site is decommissioned.

Common Questions About the Transition NEW
Will there be a release candidate or other beta release beyond Beta2TR?
No. We are not planning to make any further builds available to technical beta testers. Office 2007 products will be available in retail channels early next year. The Beta2TR build is set to expire on March 15, 2007 for all client products and May 31, 2007 for all server products. This should allow you to use Beta2TR until you can upgrade to the retail version.

How will upgrading to the retail version work?
You may upgrade/migrate server products from Beta2TR to the retail release. However, all Beta version client applications (Office Professional, OneNote, SharePoint Designer, etc.) will need to be uninstalled before you install retail versions on your machine.

Will I still be able to access old newsgroup posts?
No. We will not be providing access to archives of any newsgroup posts. Please refer to Office Online for information and training, and http://support.microsoft.com for technical assistance beginning October 28, 2006.

Will I receive a free copy of 2007 Office system products?
Copies of 2007 Office system final product are not automatically distributed to all participants at the end of the Technical Beta. This program has been a volunteer effort by participants for the mutual benefit of you/your organization and the Microsoft Office team to enable feedback on your testing of 'real world' usage scenarios, and improvement of the final product quality for all Office users.

Thank you again for your willingness to help us make the 2007 Office system better than ever. We appreciate your participation and look forward to teaming with you again for future beta programs.

Original news: Here

George Lucas Sees Movie Downloading as the Future

2006-10-07T07:54:00.000+05:30

US movie director, George Lucas, sees the future of film in downloads.

Speaking to Variety, the Star Wars director revealed that, while he's not rushing to be among the first to release movies through iTunes, he is interested in observing how the market develops - and has chatted to Apple CEO Steve Jobs about movie downloads.

Lucas and Jobs have a historical relationship. Lucas sold Pixar to Jobs for just ten million dollars in 1986. Walt Disney acquired Pixar from Jobs in a $7.4 billion stock deal this year.

It's all money - but Lucas sees diversity, not big budget blockbusters, as the future for the film industry. As audiences gain more control over hwat they want to see, audience tastes will diversify.

Lucas thinks that movie download services like iTunes are the future for moving picture entertainment distribution. He sees 'quantity' as the secret for future success.

For the same budget as a single major movie, "I can make 50-60 two-hour movies," he stressed.

"In the future market, that's where it's going to land, because it's going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable," he said.

Original News : Here

MacBook Shutdown Caused by Heat Sink?

2006-10-07T07:48:00.000+05:30

Apple has faced temporary problems sourcing spare parts for MacBooks affected by intermittent random shutdowns.

Some users have complained that their MacBooks have developed a penchant for this problem. In essence, the fault is one in which some - but not all - MacBooks will simply close down during normal use.

This fault appears to affect a small but substantial minority of MacBooks, and usually manifests itself after a period of normal use.

The fault is intermittent and hard to pin down. Apple's technical support department has told some users that re-seating the memory modules may mitigate it in some cases.

The company published a recent technical note advising affected users to contact Apple Support.

Sources have revealed that Apple originally traced the problem to the MacBook logic board.

Early last week, Apple resellers were informed that logic board replacement was no longer necessary in all cases.

Apple's maintenance partners have been instructed to replace the heat sinks in MacBooks first. Logic boards will then be replaced if the problem continues.

Apple last week added heat sinks for MacBooks to its list of available replacement parts for Apple maintenance departments. Initially, only logic boards were available, and the company had advised dealers to replace these if the problem manifested itself. The effect of the demand for logic boards and heat sinks has been to impact on repairs, as spares have been limited.

An Australian report reveals anger among some MacBook owners, who have waited weeks for their new machines to be repaired as a result. An Apple spokesperson told ZDNet: "In terms of the logic board we have now got supply." The company also moved to resolve complaints from some users named in the report.

Original News : Here

Pay-per-Digg service exposed

2006-10-07T07:42:00.000+05:30

A pay-for-votes service has been launched that allows publishers to promote their submissions on Digg.com.

User/Submitter touts itself as a site "where Digg submitters pay for Digg users to promote their stories, and where Digg users make easy money".

Digg is a social book-marking service where users can submit stories and vote for content that they like. Submissions that garner enough interest are promoted to the service's front page, which typically leads to a spike in traffic.

The User/Submitter site offers Digg users 10 cents for every 'digg' they issue to listed stories. The publishers of those stories are then charged a base fee of $20 plus $1 per Digg.

It is unclear whether the service offers a genuine product or is a hoax, however. In a test by vnunet.com, we were able to create an account and were presented with a list of stories on which we could vote.

But we were unable to verify whether those stories had recruited the services of User/Submitter or were just random links pulled from the Digg.com website.

User/Submitter did not respond to several requests for comment.
Digg pointed out that User/Submitter is manipulating a voting system whose credibility is a crucial aspect of the user-driven media site.

"The concept of compensating an individual or individuals to Digg specific stories is certainly against the principles Digg was built on and its community, " Digg chief executive Jay Adelson said in an e-mail to vnunet.com.

He added that Digg is constantly looking for ways to prevent fraud schemes in its voting system, and that the service is considering legal action against User/Submitter.

The battle between creators of voting sites and people looking to profit from their manipulation is only going to get worse, according to Jupiter Research analyst Barry Parr.

"As the sites become more influential, it becomes an arms race for people who want to spam them," Parr told vnunet.com.

Parr cited Netscape's user-driven media site as an example of how voting systems are being manipulated.

"There is definitely an effort to promote political stories [on Netscape] both from the right and the left," he said.

There also are known cases of users manipulating or 'gaming' the Digg voting system, even though Digg has safeguards designed to prevent users from fixing ballots.

"Digg has many elements baked into its proprietary algorithm designed to prevent fraud, and Digg will continue to add new elements as new abuses emerge, " said Adelson.

It appears that some of those new elements are already in place. The vnunet.com test account was disabled within hours of posting diggs for User/Submitter stories.

Original News: Here

Microsoft Plans Vista Upgrade Coupon For Holiday PC Buying

2006-10-05T19:26:00.000+05:30

Microsoft later this month plans to roll out an Express Upgrade program that gives buyers of Windows XP-based PCs a coupon for a free or discounted upgrade to Windows Vista through March 15.

As part of the deal, designed to drive PC sales though the holiday season, Microsoft will include coupons in each Windows XP SKU that will entitle users to a free or discounted Vista upgrade when the next-generation operating system ships in the first quarter of 2007, industry sources said.

For instance, customers who buy PCs equipped with Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Pro Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP Pro x64 Edition are entitled to a free upgrade to Vista, sources said. Customers will be responsible for fulfillment costs.
Not all of the coupons will be for free upgrades. Customers who buy systems running Windows XP Home Edition can upgrade to Vista Home Basic Edition for a flat $49 fee and to the higher-end Windows Vista Home Premium Edition for a cost of $79.
The Windows Vista Technology Upgrade Program runs from Oct. 26, 2006, through March 15, 2007. Distributors are expected to have the new SKUs in house for system builders by Oct. 15. News of the planned coupon and promotion emerged in June.
System builders must meet certain requirement to sell the new SKUs of Windows XP. The Technology Upgrade Program, for example, states that only systems running Windows XP that meet Windows Vista requirements will be eligible for the Express Upgrade, sources said.
Each of the new SKUs will ship with an amended system builder license that requires PC makers to ship the coupons only with complying systems. System builders also must agree to support the systems after the user upgrades to Vista.
Microsoft would neither confirm nor deny that a coupon program is in the offing. "We are talking with all of our partners about plans for an offer. But those discussions are ongoing, and we have nothing more to share at this time," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Read Full News : Here

Power and the NVIDIA "G80"

2006-10-05T19:13:00.000+05:30

Gentlemen, start your DirectX10 engines

DailyTech received its first looks at a GeForce 8800 production sample today, and by the looks of it, the card is a monster: at least with regard to size and power requirements.

The GeForce 8800 comes in two flavors, which we will get into more detail about over the course of the next few days. Both cards are dual-slot PCIe cards measuring a little less than nine inches in length. The first card, the GeForce 8800GTX, is the full blown G80 experience. The GeForce 8800GTS is a cut down version of the first.

The marketing material included with the card claims NVIDIA requires at least a 450W power supply for a single GeForce 8800GTX, and 400W for the 8800GTS. Top tier vendors in Taiwan have already confirmed with DailyTech that GeForce 8800 cards in SLI mode will likely carry a power supply "recommendation" of 800W. NVIDIA's GeForce 7950GX2, currently the company's top performing video card, carries a recommendation of 400W to run the card in single-card mode.

NVIDIA is slated to launch both versions of the GeForce 8800 in November of this year. More details on the GeForce 8800 will be available later today on DailyTech.

Original News : Here

NVIDIA "G80" Retail Details Unveiled

2006-10-05T19:09:00.000+05:30

DailyTech's hands-on with the GeForce 8800 series continues with more information about the GPU and the retail boards. The new NVIDIA graphics architecture will be fully compatible with Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10 API with support for shader model 4.0, and represents the company's 8th generation GPU in the GeForce family.

NVIDIA has code-named G80 based products as the GeForce 8800 series. While the 7900 and 7800 series launched with GT and GTX suffixes, G80 will do away with the GT suffix. Instead, NVIDIA has revived the GTS suffix for its second fastest graphics product—a suffix that hasn’t been used since the GeForce 2 days.

NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800GTX will be the flagship product. The core clock will be factory clocked at 575 MHz. All GeForce 8800GTX cards will be equipped with 768MB of GDDR3 memory, to be clocked at 900 MHz. The GeForce 8800GTX will also have a 384-bit memory interface and deliver 86GB/second of memory bandwidth. GeForce 8800GTX graphics cards are equipped with 128 unified shaders clocked at 1350 MHz. The theoretical texture fill-rate is around 38.4 billion pixels per second.

Slotted right below the GeForce 8800GTX is the slightly cut-down GeForce 8800GTS. These graphics cards will have a G80 GPU clocked at a slower 500 MHz. The memory configuration for GeForce 8800GTS cards slightly differ from the GeForce 8800GTX. GeForce 8800GTS cards will be equipped with 640MB of GDDR3 graphics memory clocked at 900 MHz. The memory interface is reduced to 320-bit and overall memory bandwidth is 64GB/second. There will be fewer unified shaders with GeForce 8800GTS graphics cards. 96 unified shaders clocked at 1200 MHz are available on GeForce 8800GTS graphics cards.

Additionally GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS products are HDCP compliant with support for dual dual-link DVI, VIVO and HDTV outputs. All cards will have dual-slot coolers too. Expect GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS products to launch the second week of November 2006. This will be a hard launch as most manufacturers should have boards ready now.

Original News : Here

Microsoft changes Window Server Datacentre licensing

2006-10-05T19:05:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has changed the licensing of its Windows Server Datacentre operating system, allowing users buying new servers licensed with the OS to run an unlimited number of virtualised Windows Server instances.

Microsoft said that unlimited virtualisation rights would significantly extend the savings customers gain through server consolidation on the Windows Server platform.

“Together, Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition and Virtual Server 2005 R2 are an ideal, cost-effective platform for ‘scale out’ virtualization,” it said.

By licensing a server’s processors with Windows Server Datacenter Edition, users would be able to run Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition or a mix of the three editions without having to track the number of virtual machines or pay for additional Windows Server licences.
Original News : Here

Microsoft to Lock Pirates Out of Vista

2006-10-05T18:58:00.000+05:30

Microsoft said Wednesday that it plans to clamp down hard on piraters of its next-generation operating systems, crippling both Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn" if users fail to activate their copies within 30 days.

While the restriction of operating system features has been around since the advent of Windows XP in 2001, the new program takes that process a step further. It would also make widely distributed volume-license product keys -- traditionally supplied to corporations -- harder to use.

Called the Software Protection Program, the initiative is made up of several parts. The first move is to make certain features unavailable unless the user has confirmed their copy of Windows as genuine. Only licensed copies would have access to Aero -- Vista's new user interface -- and ReadyBoost, which uses a flash drive to temporarily add more memory to a computer system.

Additionally, the functionality of Windows Defender would be crippled, and optional downloads from Windows Update would be unavailable to the unlicensed user. Microsoft would also place a watermark on the desktop at all times that reads "This copy of Windows is not genuine."

The biggest change, however, is to the Windows activation process. With a number of corporate product keys publicly available on the Internet, activating a pirated copy of Windows Vista was quite easy as it only took one activation to prevent reduced functionality.

With Vista, the activation isn't permanent. If Microsoft discovers that the user has used a product key without authorization, it will force the user to reactivate his or her copy of Windows. Product keys may be blocked for a number of reasons, Microsoft says, including for abuse, stolen or pirate keys, or if the key was seized due to anti-piracy efforts.

"The Software Protection Platform has been under development for several years," Microsoft's director of the Genuine Software Initiative Cori Hartje said. "It brings together new anti-piracy innovations, counterfeit detection and tamper-resistant features into a complete platform that provides better software protection to programs that leverage it."

While Vista and Longhorn are the first to use the new technologies, the program would expand to other products in the coming years.

Hartje cited data from the Business Software Alliance that indicated 35 percent of all software installed in 2005 was pirated and unlicensed. This represented some $35 billion in lost revenue for the software industry.

"Software piracy is not a victimless crime," she said. "It harms consumers, businesses and other organizations every year."

Full News : Here

William Hill fights back against the hackers

2006-10-05T08:27:00.000+05:30

The entire online betting industry faces an ongoing battle in the fight against hackers and extortionists, according to William Hill's IT chief.

In the latest of the silicon.com CIO Vision video interview series, Victor Kemeny, IT director at the UK's largest bookmaker William Hill, said: "We have to be lucky 100 per cent of the time, whereas the bad guys have only got to be lucky once."

A number of UK bookmakers were targeted by criminal gangs two years ago, who threatened them with denial of service (DoS) attacks that would crash their websites unless they paid a ransom.

The UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit eventually smashed a Russian gang involved in the online extortion racket and money laundering but the threat hasn't entirely disappeared.

Kemeny told silicon.com: "We had a DoS attack six or nine months ago and we actually just rode it out. So for over 48 hours, we let the DoS attack run."

The security threat is one of the negative aspects of doing business on the internet but there are also plenty of opportunities.

He said: "The internet has changed the dynamics of the game. When it came along, there wasn't much belief that people would want to bet on the internet and we thought if we could make £50,000 a year we'd actually have a massive product there. Now we're launching arcade games and that can make potentially between £20,000 and 50,000 pounds a week."

Key to this will be offering more products - betting markets - for punters to bet on, according to Kemeny. This will take the form of more 'in-game' gambling where customers can bet on things like how many kicks of the ball before the next goal or, when a penalty is awarded, whether it will be saved or not.

He said: "For that sort of market you've got 30 seconds to create and take the bets."

Part of William Hill's plan for gaining competitive advantage in this increasingly rapidly-changing and fast-moving industry is to overhaul its ageing IT systems, and the company has just embarked on a three year project to replace legacy IT dating back to 1982.

Kemeny said: "What we're intending to do is deliver a more agile platform that will enable us to get to market quicker and actually provide us with a scalability - both horizontally and vertically - that actually means that as the business grows, depending on what channel it grows in, we can actually scale the infrastructure appropriately."

The other Google search site

2006-10-05T08:08:00.000+05:30

Google has created a search site without any Google branding to test new features. The site, SearchMash, has a simple blue and white interface with a search bar and an option to click on "popular searches." Once keywords are entered, the results page features links to results running down the left side of the page and the top three image results on the right side.

SearchMash also lets you click on a result and drag and drop it to change the order. Also, when a link is clicked on, the user is offered the option of opening the listings in the current window or a new window, seeing more pages from the Web site or finding similar pages. Additional results are added to the bottom of the original results page by clicking on a "more web pages" link.

With SearchMash, Google "plans to test user interface ideas without Google's brand somehow skewing the tests," Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch.com wrote in a blog posting on Monday. "It's pretty slick."

Kabul Express Theatrical Preview and Download

2006-10-02T10:20:00.000+05:30

src="http://www1.yashrajfilms.com/ke/ke_theatrical.asx"
align="top" showcontrols=1 showaudiocontrols=1 autostart=1 autosize=0 showstatusbar=1 showdisplay=0 width=320 height=240>

If You want to Download it as well then click here

Dhoom 2 Theatrical Trailer and Download

2006-10-02T10:09:00.000+05:30

src="http://www1.yashrajfilms.com/d2/d2_theatrical.asx"
align="top" showcontrols=1 showaudiocontrols=1 autostart=1 autosize=0 showstatusbar=1 showdisplay=0 width=320 height=240>

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Processor, memory may marry in future computers

2006-09-30T22:14:00.000+05:30

SAN FRANCISCO--Will Intel get back into the business of selling computer memory? It might, if one of the ideas in a recent chip prototype moves into manufacturing.

On Tuesday, Intel showed off an 80-core processor at its developer forum taking place in San Francisco this week and one of the prominent features of the chip is that each core is connected directly to a 256KB memory chip through a technology called Through Silicon Vias, or TSV.

The memory wedded to the processor cores could constitute the entire memory needed for a computer, Intel CTO Justin Rattner told News.com in an interview during the Intel Developer Forum. TSV could be used in a variety of chips, not just the 80-core monster. As a result, computer makers, when building a system, would get their memory when they bought their processors from Intel. They would not have to obtain memory chips separately from other companies like they do now.

"You could buy it as a block," he said.

Back in the 1980s, Intel was one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, or DRAM, but it got out of the market because of punishing competition from Japan. (The company, however, continues to produce NOR flash memory and a few other types of memory. Typically, these chips are not used in the same fashion as DRAM.)

Wedding memory directly to the processor would have huge performance benefits. Currently, memory and the processor in Intel-based computers exchange data through a memory controller, which moves at a far slower rate than the processor. It's one of the big bottlenecks in computer performance. TSV, which displaces the memory controller, would shuttle data far quicker.

Potential competitive edge
Data coming out of memory also squeezes through an overcrowded port. TSV would effectively open up thousands of ports. Overall, Rattner said, TSV is by far a more notable accomplishment than putting 80 cores on the same piece of silicon.

The processor cores are not restricted to getting memory from the chip wedded to it, added Rattner. The cores are connected to each other through high-speed links controlled by a router integrated into each core. Overall, the prototype 80-core chip has an aggregate memory bandwidth of 1 terabyte per second, meaning that it can shift a trillion bytes per second.

Conceivably, TSV would also put AMD on the hot seat. A good portion of the performance gains AMD achieved with the Opteron chip came from Opteron's integrated memory controller. Intel does not put integrated memory controllers on its chips.

In all probability, Intel would not get back into the business of manufacturing DRAM--it remains one of the most difficult chip markets in which to turn a profit. Nonetheless, TSV would put it back into the business of selling it.

Rattner, however, noted that implementing TSV will take time. The memory chips attached to the 80-core processor are SRAM, a relatively expensive memory that Intel still makes. The next step is to see how well DRAM works with TSV.

Engineers would also have to devise packages that would let the processor and memory live together. The processor typically generates more heat than the memory, which is one of the factors that would have to be considered. Although it doesn't get many headlines, packaging design is a huge challenge for chipmakers.

"It's still in the research stage," he said. "We will do a lot of work with it in the next several years.
More at CNet

European rivals turn wary eye on Microsoft

2006-09-30T21:55:00.000+05:30

Companies such as F-Secure, Panda Software and Sophos are taking a low-key approach, unlike their U.S. counterparts. Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec, in particular, has been vocal in its opposition to Microsoft, even sending executives to Europe to talk to reporters about how it fears the software giant will undercut security rivals with Windows Vista.
That doesn't mean, however, that the Europeans don't share the concerns that have been voiced by Symantec, McAfee and others.

"We should regard Microsoft's entry into this space as a threat," said Josu Franco, director of corporate development at Panda Software in Bilbao, Spain. "Microsoft is trying to leverage its monopoly in the desktop to compete in the antivirus space, and we should call that abuse."

Europe is a key battleground for Microsoft as it gets ready to ship Vista, the successor to Windows XP that is slated to be broadly available in January. The European Commission has already warned Microsoft to stick to its competition rules--in particular, those that prohibit abuse of a dominant market position. Microsoft continues to seek out what's permissible in Vista.

Europe has many small companies that sell antivirus and other security products. Some are concerned that they face the same fate as Netscape, the venerable browser company that saw its business evaporate after Microsoft added Internet Explorer to Windows.

"All of them are concerned, and should be," said Thomas Raschke, a Hellerup, Denmark-based analyst at Forrester Research. "The security market, and particularly the most mature areas like antivirus and firewalls, is maturing and consolidating rapidly. Many of the companies will either have to join forces or disappear."

The Netscape effect
While security software and Web browsers are obviously different, Microsoft's intentions are the same and hold an equal risk for security, Franco said.

"I don't think that anybody would say that having Internet Explorer on over 90 percent of desktops has been good for consumers in terms of innovation, user choice and especially in security. We all know that this monoculture in browsers has been bad," Franco said.

But Microsoft maintains that it can't protect Windows on its own and that other security companies are important.

"We don't believe that Microsoft can solve this problem by itself, and we need the industry's support in this effort," said Adrien Robinson, a business development manager at Microsoft. "The more that we can do with partners, the better for our customers."

Security software and features have emerged as the hottest topic among a number of concerns with Vista, which will come with added security technology. At the same time, Microsoft is pushing into the security space with a new product for consumers, Windows Live OneCare, and is working on protective business products under the Forefront brand.

"As long as Microsoft allows equal access to the operating system, we can differentiate," said Steve Munford, CEO of Sophos, a security company in Abingdon, England. "We have to make sure that we have a broader and more comprehensive strategy than Microsoft."

Symantec, which leads the worldwide antivirus software market, has been loudest in raising the alarm over Vista and Microsoft's entry into the security arena. CEO John Thompson earlier this year warned of a future where all security applications are provided by Microsoft.

"The concerns from the U.S. companies are real," said Risto Siilasmaa, chief executive officer at F-Secure, based in Helsinki, Finland.

Pricing concerns
Predatory pricing is of particular concern, said Siilasmaa. "If Microsoft starts to offer their solutions at significantly reduced price levels to gain market share, and then plans to raise prices again after a few years, that obviously is a business issue all the companies have to tackle," he said.

Microsoft could change the game on pricing, Munford agreed. "You always think about predatory pricing, but I have not seen any evidence of it," he said. Siilasmaa also said he hasn't yet seen any signs that the software giant will sell its products at artificially low prices in order to harm rivals.

In the short term, Microsoft's entry into the security industry might mean lower prices, but that isn't necessarily good for software buyers, Franco said. "We would think that Microsoft tactics to compete in this space will ultimately hurt consumers," he said.

The software giant has introduced its Windows Live OneCare in the U.S., but the consumer security product is not yet available in Europe.

In addition to a firewall, which was also part of XP, Vista will include anti-spyware software called "Windows Defender" and a new Windows Security Center that tells people the status of the protection on their PC. Security companies sell competing products.

Some of Microsoft's rivals have publicly complained about a feature called "PatchGuard" in the 64-bit version of Vista. Critics claim the feature locks out helpful security software, while Microsoft says it is designed to guard core parts of the operating system against attacks.

Meanwhile, other concerns that Panda, among others, have raised include the possibility that Microsoft could use its huge presence on desktops to promote its own security software. For example, it already advertises Windows Live OneCare on the default "Welcome Center" in Vista, which appears after the PC starts up.

Lunch invitation
In addition, Microsoft's own security products could benefit from better access to Windows. After all, the people who develop those products work in the same place as those who are building the operating system, several security companies pointed out.

"They will use any trick they can to link their security products to the operating system. Not everybody will be on an equal footing," Franco said. "They are in a better position to align their operating system and their security applications. They have the original access, not the early access."

Microsoft, however, argues that its own security product teams are on an equal footing with third-party software makers.

"We're not treating OneCare or Forefront differently than we're treating them. They're getting the same level of access," Robinson said. "Anything that OneCare or Forefront is using, any third party has access to that as well."

Rival security software makers are even welcome to come eat lunch in Microsoft's cafeteria and meet the product teams, she said.

"There is the fact that we are Microsoft and we're all sitting here in Redmond, but at the same time we do give access to ISVs (independent software vendors) here on campus, and they can come at any time to meet with the different product teams as well as have lunch in our cafeterias," Robinson said.

But Panda's Franco feels partners have been "fooled" too long by Microsoft's talk of partnerships. "If you really want better consumer security, there should be trust between Microsoft and its partners in security. Right now, Microsoft being a competitor, how do you build trust? There are too many conflicts," he said.

Playing fair
Sophos is a Microsoft partner and works with the company on several products. Munford believes Microsoft won't engage in any anticompetitive practices--it is more interested in selling Windows and Office, not security software, he said.

"I would say that Microsoft is very conscious at playing fair and making sure that what they are doing in the operating system does not give any unfair advantage," he said. "Microsoft is open to dialog with security vendors. At the end of the day, Microsoft is not interested in putting security vendors out of business."

Indeed, Microsoft doesn't intend to harm anyone in the security industry, analyst Raschke said. It has been forced to address security, he said, "or their products would not take off. Security is often the No. 1 inhibitor."

Computer security in depends on variety and innovation in security software, Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told CNET News.com earlier this month.

"Microsoft's design of the security features in Vista should not put this diversity and innovation at risk. This might occur if reputable third-party security vendors, which have proven experience in addressing security problems, are prevented from competing on an equal footing," he said.

Panda has presented its case before the European Commission, but Franco would not say whether the company has filed an official complaint.

F-Secure has not yet spoken to the regulators, Siilasmaa said. "We trust Microsoft will do the right thing, and if they don't, everyone will be talking to the Commission," he said. "I believe that Microsoft will come to understand and accept that, and they will change some of the plans they have regarding Vista."

Original News:Here

Broad Beta of .NET Micro Framework Debuts

2006-09-30T21:53:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Tuesday announced the broad public release of a beta developer kit for the .NET Micro Framework at the Embedded Systems Conference being held in Boston.

The .NET Micro Framework provides a managed code development environment for small devices like smart watches that are typically constrained by cost, memory, processor and/or power consumption, according to company statements. Microsoft's intent is to extend the advantages of .NET and Visual Studio to the smallest classes of devices.

The framework currently provides the software platform for all Smart Watches for MSN Direct. Additionally, the company plans to include it in Windows Vista SideShow displays and in an upcoming version of Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, the statements say.

The .NET Micro Framework grew out of the Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) initiative, which Microsoft first publicly announced more than three years ago when it introduced the MSN Direct Smart Watch. Developing SPOT devices did not require all of the features that were available in Windows CE. As a result, Microsoft created the .NET Micro Framework.

According to Microsoft, the framework is fully integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio, thus enabling developers to create and debug software using familiar tools, including the ability to debug code running on the target device.

Symantec: Microsoft won't give us key Vista tech

2006-09-30T21:34:00.000+05:30

Symantec has accused Microsoft of withholding key information about its upcoming Vista operating system in an attempt to gain an advantage in the security market.

The security specialist said this week that Microsoft is refusing to hand over the application programmable interfaces (APIs) for Windows Defender, the spyware product that will be included in Windows Vista. Without the APIs, Symantec contends that it's unable to ensure that its own security products are compatible with the update.

"Microsoft is affirmatively introducing bottlenecks to funnel customers to their products," said John Brigden, Symantec senior vice president for Europe. "It's all about control and dominance. They are deliberately delaying giving us the APIs."

Microsoft responded to Symantec's concerns on Wednesday, and said it had made the APIs for Defender available earlier this week.

"As a result of our ongoing dialogue with partners and our customers, Microsoft decided in August this year to add the ability for any security software company to programmatically disable Windows Defender access through an API," a Microsoft representative said.

"Availability of the Defender APIs was announced to security partners on Friday, Sept. 22, 2006, and we understand Symantec requested and received the go-ahead to develop on that API on Monday, Sept. 25," Microsoft said.

Microsoft added the functionality to disable Windows Defender in Release Candidate 1 of Vista, or RC1, which came out early this month. There may have been some confusion in the industry because the accompanying information for developers, called a software development kit, or SDK, did not provide details on the functionality, the company said.

"Two weeks after releasing RC1, we provided the follow-up documentation, which was released out-of-band; normally we release it with major milestones," said Adrien Robinson, business development manager at Microsoft. "The confusion, I think, that people are having is that the functionality is not in the RC1 SDK, and the reason for that is that we added it just before RC1."

Symantec, though, insists that the APIs still aren't available.

The timing of the release of APIs is crucial for Symantec, as it is due to ship a Vista-compatible Norton antivirus product to PC makers in October.

"No one has received any information about Defender, and we're coming up to an OEM (original equipment manufacturers) shipment date in October. It's three weeks away," Brigden said.

Symantec has partnerships with equipment manufacturers Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sony and Toshiba, among others. The antivirus vendor is worried that Microsoft will hand over the APIs so late that Symantec won't be able to make its antivirus software compatible with Vista in time.

"Microsoft will provide information about two days before the October shipment date, and say, 'We've given you the APIs.' Now, we're good, but we're not good enough (to integrate Norton with Defender) in that time," a Symantec representative said.

Symantec hopes the APIs will be supplied before that. It would not comment on the potential damage to its relationships with PC partners should it not have enough time to integrate Norton into Vista.

The entry of Microsoft into the security market has put incumbents on their guard, given the software giant's $34 billion cash pile and a hefty presence on desktops. On top of this, European Commission regulators and Microsoft are in the middle of a tussle over the potential antitrust impact of security components in Vista.

Security vendor McAfee is also irked that Microsoft has not provided APIs for Defender. Sources close to the company confirmed that Microsoft has not provided the APIs, and that senior McAfee executives "really have a bee in their bonnets" about the situation.

McAfee is concerned that there will be compatibility problems between its security systems and Vista, and that customers will not be able to remove Defender from their systems, CNET News.com sister site ZDNet UK has learned.

Symantec and McAfee are battling Microsoft for the ability to replace the Windows Security Center with their own security consoles. Additionally, the security companies also claim the PatchGuard feature in 64-bit editions of Vista excludes them but lets in hackers.
More :Here

Windows Vista build 5728 Galleries

2006-09-30T21:03:00.000+05:30

Paul Thurrott has posted a few galleries of screenshots for this new build released to testers last friday.

For those that didn't care to upgrade RC1 or have not been able to download and install this build the gallery offers a good summary of what we can expect in January 2007 when Windows Vista becomes widely available.

The galleries are split into 5 sections:

Windows Vista Build 5728 Screenshot Gallery 1: Summary
Windows Vista Build 5728 Screenshot Gallery 2: Clean Install
Windows Vista Build 5728 Screenshot Gallery 3: System Repair Features
Windows Vista Build 5728 Screenshot Gallery 4: Windows Vista Basic User Interface
Windows Vista Build 5728 Screenshot Gallery 5: Windows Classic User Interface

Head over to the Super Site for Windows for the eye candy.

This is the latest windows released and downloaded .

Microsoft Research turns 15

2006-09-30T20:59:00.000+05:30

Microsoft's research arm is celebrating its 15-year anniversary this week by patting itself on the back for creating innovating technology and showing off some new work being done in the group.

Microsoft Research held an event at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus Tuesday where Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates appeared via video to applaud the organization, Microsoft said.

"During the past 15 years, Microsoft researchers have contributed amazing breakthroughs and insights that have advanced the state of the art in dozens of technology fields," Gates said in his talk, according to a press statement. "Their work is a clear reflection of Microsoft's commitment to innovation."

Microsoft Research was founded in 1991, and works independent of the product groups to invent new technology. It also works with academic programs and provides grants to help promote IT research and innovation in universities.

At Tuesday's event, the research team demonstrated some new technologies currently in development, Microsoft said. They included visualization technologies that combine maps from Windows Live Local with other maps -- such as those of bike trails or bus routes -- to create hybrid maps that can be helpful to users.

Other technologies demonstrated included one that allowed images and data to be displayed projector-like on tabletops, walls and other surfaces and manipulated with hand gestures -- thus doing away with the need for a mouse or monitor -- and graphics technology for transforming two-dimensional images into 3D graphics, Microsoft said.

While not all of the technologies developed within Microsoft Research make it into actual products, some recent ones that have will be included in the forthcoming Windows Vista OS, Microsoft said. They include new desktop search technologies that allow users to locate anything stored on their computer quickly, as well as technology for providing a unified user experience for searching on both the Web and locally on the desktop, Microsoft said.

Microsoft Research has more than 700 researchers at five laboratories around the world. Aside from Redmond, the research group has labs in Beijing; Bangalore, India; Cambridge, England; and Mountain View, California.

More Here

Aperture 1.5

2006-09-25T23:18:00.000+05:30

Aperture 1.5

The first all-in-one post-production tool for serious photographers, Aperture provides everything you need for after the shoot. Using its comprehensive collection of tools, you can easily import, manage, edit, catalog, organize, adjust, publish, export, and archive your images more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

Want To listen Radio City 104.8 Mhz Lucknow

2006-09-24T11:16:00.000+05:30

Then this is the page for you you can Listen to the radio Station Lucknow (RadioCity 104.8 Mhz) and that also live without any radio as well you just have to click the button and voila you can start Radio

Writely ::::: An alternate to MS OFFice

2006-09-24T07:26:00.000+05:30

What does Writely do?

Writely allows you to edit documents online with whomever you choose, and then publish and blog them online.

Will Writely still be free?

We have no plans to charge for Writely. We continually work to provide a reliable, free service for our users, and we look forward to continue developing and improving Writely.

Has Writely been acquired by Google?

Yes. We're happy to confirm that Writely is now a part of Google.

What exactly can I do with it?

Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text (or create documents from scratch).

Use our simple WYSIWYG editor to format your documents, spell-check them, etc.

Invite others to share your documents (by e-mail address).

Edit documents online with whomever you choose.

View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version.

Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose.

Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF*, HTML or zip.

Post your documents to your blog.

How often do you back up data?

While we can't give you exact figures, please be assured that we back up data almost as often as you can change it.

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Images Related to Writely are Writely1 and Writely2