Microsoft and eBay Hook up to Catch Pirates Microsoft Detours 2.1 - Closest Thing to the Windows Source Code Hook deep into WindowsWhile some are speculating the new company could have something
to do with Microsoft buying Citrix, I think all the signs, not to mention the timing, are pointing to a Microsoft-Yahoo hook-up. After all, this week
is the “All Things D” D7 confab, where Microsoft is slated to show off to attendees its newest search release. And both Microsoft CEO
Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz are on the guest list….
winbeta.org - 26.05.2009Mobile datacenter packs in 11,200 cores and 4PB of storage
Parked directly opposite the Moscone Center, San Francisco, Rackable Systems' ICE Cube Centro was something of any eyesore. However, it's also a
mobile datacenter that packs in, would you believe, 1,400 half-height servers each outfitted with couple of quad-core Xeons, providing a total of
11,200 processing cores.
The container also throws in 4.1 petabytes of storage for good measure, and the internal design is such
that there are no fans in the actual racks. Rather, cooling is centralised and, Rackmount states, can reduce cooling costs by 80 per cent when
compared to traditional datacenter setups.
The 40-foot containers fit on to the back of a lorry and, as such, can be transported
to the customer's location.
You can even hook a number of these containers together, should 11,200 processing cores be not up to
the task.
winbeta.org - 19.09.2007CRM for iGoogle demoed
Its interesting to see all the
companies who are trying to
hook into iGoogle (Googles
personalized portal page).
Heres Etelos showing off how
its CRM for Google works.
Also in this demo is Etelos
Apps on a Plane where they
built a system that works
totally offline. Real
important for salespeople whod
use a CRM application.
winbeta.org - 08.06.2007Vonage Hit With AT&T Lawsuit
Just when beleaguered internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. seemed to be off the hook, having resolved the nasty little tiff with Sprint
several weeks earlier for a cool $80 million, disaster (probably too melodramatic a word, but, eh) strikes again in a similar form as before.
Vonage disclosed today that it is being sued by AT&T Inc. for alleged patent infringement. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
the company said AT&Ts lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a U.S. district court in Madison, Wis., pertains to a patent on a wide-area packet-telephony
system. Vonage said it has been in discussions with AT&T to resolve the dispute, but it also said it cant guarantee the case wont go to trial.
neowin.net - 20.10.2007Microsoft works family angle in new Xbox ads
Video game makers have a bold plan to save the American family.
Well, sort of.
Bringing families and
friends together is the marketing hook behind Microsoft's Xbox, as well as promotions from rival Nintendo for its Wii game system. The tech titans
want to reach beyond teens and adult technophiles and ring up more business from casual gamers.
"We're growing our consumer
base," says Jeff Bell, a Microsoft (MSFT) corporate vice president, about the company's new ad campaign and the Oct. 22 launch of the
family-oriented Xbox 360 Arcade console. "We want to broaden our appeal."
When the original Xbox arrived in November 2001, it
was targeted at hard-core games, such as "the stereotypical young male dressed in black and living in the basement of his parents' home," Bell
says. Microsoft now wants to show that gaming doesn't have to be just an individual endeavor.
winbeta.org - 06.11.2007Windows weakness can lead to network traffic hijacks
At the ShmooCon hacker
conference, researchers with
security firm IOActive claimed
a design bug in the system
used by Windows PCs to obtain
proxy settings could let
attackers hijack traffic.
Internet Explorer on Windows
PCs by default searches for a
proxy server using the Web
Proxy Autodiscovery Protocol
and an attacker can easily
register a proxy server on a
network using the Windows
Internet Naming Service, and
other network services
including the Domain Name
System. " I can put up the
equivalent of a detour sign on
your network and redirect all
the traffic ," said Chris
Paget, director of research
and development at IOActive.
If an attack is successful,
all traffic on a network will
flow through the attacker's
proxy meaning the attacker can
access all the data, redirect
and manipulate it to his
heart's content. Fortunately,
an attack is possible only
with access to the target
network, not from the
Internet: " The biggest
risk inside a corporation
would come from a malicious
insider. This is not worthy of
mass panic or critical
advisories ."
Microsoft acknowledged the
problem in a support article
on its TechNet Web site:
" If an entity can
surreptitiously register a
WPAD entry in DNS or in
WINSclients may be able to
route their Internet traffic
through a malicious proxy
server ." In its support
article, Microsoft lists steps
for network administrators to
address the WPAD problem. The
steps reserve static WPAD DNS
host names and to reserve WPAD
WINS name records. As a
result, an attacker's
malicious WPAD name will no
longer work, which will foil
the malicious proxy trick,
Paget said.
neowin.net - 26.03.2007Stealthy malware expands rootkit repertoire
Security researchers have discovered one of the most subtle and sophisticated examples of Windows rootkit software known to date. The AutoRun-NOX worm
extends the standard VXer trick of using software vulnerabilities to infect systems, by including functionality that allows the worm to exploit
Windows security bugs to hook into parts of the Windows system that operate below the radar of anti-virus packages.
"Most malware with
rootkit functionality will tamper with the Windows kernel and attempt to execute code in kernel mode," net security firm F-Secure reports.
"Typically, a special driver is used to do this... AutoRun.nox is different — it uses a vulnerability to do the job. For malware, it's
rather unique to see such a technique being used."
neowin.net - 30.09.2008OLPC developing new 'supercharger'
As One Laptop Per Child prepares to ship its highly anticipated XO laptops in two weeks, it is developing a "supercharger," a mass battery recharger
that will draw power from cows and yo-yos to help the laptops run longer.
The supercharger is a box that will charge 15 batteries
at a time, said Mary Lou Jepsen, chief technology officer for OLPC.
The supercharger complements other environmentally friendly
battery charging technologies being used or under development for the XO laptop, Jepsen said. Users can hook up handcranks, cows, yo-yos, foot pedals,
and solar panels to the box to recharge batteries.
Last week, OLPC said it was designing a cow-powered generator through a dynamo
with a system of belts and pulleys using cattle to generate power.
winbeta.org - 30.10.2007Pownce using AIR
Kevin Rose unveiled a new
project today, Pownce. Pownce looks like
it’s going to combine
Twitter with the ability to
send events, files, and links
to your friends. Pownce allows
you to send it to a specific
person or share with everyone.
Based on Leah&#
8217;s blog it looks like
it’s using S3 and of
course AIR, the Adobe Integrated
Runtime.
Pownce
decided to do their desktop
client in AIR because it was
cross platform and they could
use the web skills to port
most of the website
functionality to the desktop
client. I think it’s a
pretty good use case for AIR.
You can do everything you need
to from the website and
you’ll never have to
download the client if you
don’t want to. But if
you become a heavy user of
Pownce, you’re going to
find the desktop client much
easier to use and a much
better experience overall.
After playing with it
for a bit, I’m excited
about what Pownce is going to
bring to the table. I’m
a huge fan of Twitter and
Pownce seems kind of like
Twitter on steroids. I just
hope they can scale. One of
the amazing things is that
this team has only 3
developers. With those three
people they were able to build
the website, the desktop
client and hook everything
together. That’s the
kind of thing AIR lets you do.
winbeta.org - 28.06.2007Proof of concept adware program for OS X announced
Online fraudsters may be ready
to put Mac users in their
sights. On Thursday, antivirus
firm F-Secure published a
brief analysis of a
proof-of-concept adware
program for the Mac OS X that
could theoretically hook into
any application to run
attacker-specified code. The
program, dubbed IAdware by
F-Secure, could be silently
installed in a user's account
without requiring
administrator rights.
We won't disclose the exact
technique used here - it's a
feature not a bug - but let's
just say that installing a
System Library shouldn't be
allowed without prompting the
user," stated F-Secure in the
blog post. "Especially as it
only requires copy
permissions."
Vulnerability researchers
have increasingly focused on
finding flaws in the Mac OS.
During the month of November,
two serious flaws in Apple's
operating system were
disclosed as part of the Month
of Kernel Bugs (MoKB) project.
The IAdware proof-of-concept
code did nothing malicious,
but merely opened up a browser
each time an application was
opened, F-Secure stated.
neowin.net - 26.11.2006BT bundles MS Office with Linux laptop
This week's award for the Most Astutely Selected Software Bundle goes to BT after the teleco tried to hook potential purchasers of Asus'
Linux-running Eee PC 900 by offering to ship it with a copy of Microsoft Office. BT is offering the 20GB 900 for £335.99, but if anyone out
there is willing to buy it for £422.34, the telco will include a copy of Office Home and Student in the box.
This despite the fact
that, just a little way further down the page, BT's list of Eee specifications admits that the elfin laptop is not "Office ready". And BT's
generosity is as extensive as its ability to select software suitable for the miniature machine. Buying the bundle saves each punter a whopping
£1.76 on the cost of purchading the two products separately - which of course Linux Eee buyers are queueing up to do.
neowin.net - 29.04.2008