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InterviewSolution
This section includes InterviewSolutions, each offering curated multiple-choice questions to sharpen your knowledge and support exam preparation. Choose a topic below to get started.
| 2201. |
Solve : Microsoft offers free support for Vista SP1 installs? |
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Answer» HERE Microsoft Corp. is offering free support to any WINDOWS Vista user experiencing problems with installing Service PACK 1 (SP1), ACCORDING to a company spokesman. "[Anyone] needing technical support regarding your installation of Windows Vista SP1, please go to the following URL and choose the bottom option that says, 'Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (All Languages),'" said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft employee who posted several comments to the company's Vista blog. The link LeBlanc pointed users to led to a Vista SP1-specific support site. "You have a variety of options you can choose for support, all of which will not cost you any support fee," said LeBlanc. "I repeat: Support for SP1 will not cost you ANYTHING." "That's a good move on their part," said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. The SP1 site offers support via e-mail, online chat and telephone, and it lists hours of OPERATION for the last two options. Free phone support, for instance, is available from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time on weekdays and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific time on weekends. The free support will be available for one year, and it covers installation and compatibility issues. Normally, Microsoft offers no-cost support only to users who bought Windows at retail. Users who obtained the operating system already installed on a PC are referred to the computer manufacturer or reseller; the company's for-fee support runs $59 per request unless the user or business has a prepaid support plan with Microsoft. That policy, as well as the wording of the Vista SP1 support site as late as last Friday, confused one user commenting on the same thread. "You cannot get free support from [Microsoft] if Vista came preloaded on your HP. At least, that is what the Web site indicates," said "romroyer." LeBlanc quickly replied. "You are incorrect. We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1 -- even folks like 'pat' [an earlier commenter on the thread] who may be using a [reseller] copy of Windows Vista that came with their HP laptop," he said. "Again, anyone can get free support for installation issues of SP1." By Sunday, Microsoft had modified the Vista SP1 support site and removed references directing users to contact their resellers if they had acquired Vista on new computers. The site's wording had been altered to read: "No charge: Unlimited support requests." That's Microsoft's standard support policy for service packs, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "The no-fee support is actually part of our Windows Service Pack policy, not something specific to Windows Vista SP1," she wrote. Microsoft, however, has done little to broadcast news of the free SP1 support. The home page for the Windows Vista Solution Center, the operating system's help and support starting point, makes no mention of it, nor does Microsoft's main Windows Vista SP1 site. SUPPORT SITE It's the least they can do, and I'm glad to see them do it. I can hardly point fingers, since it's been tweny years since I wrote a script, and what I wrote was only a few hundred lines, if that...so I'm not saying I can do it better -- I can't do it at all. Microsoft needs to support the customers that pay dearly for their software, and I'm glad they are. |
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| 2202. |
Solve : Vista Service Pack 1 known issues? |
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Answer» Things to KNOW before you download Windows Vista SP1 Information about PROGRAMS that are known to experience a loss of functionality when they run on a Windows Vista Service Pack 1-based computer Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is not available for installation from Windows Update and is not OFFERED by Automatic Updates A device driver is not installed, or a hardware device does not function correctly after you install Windows Vista Service Pack 1Quote Cause 3 lol. |
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| 2203. |
Solve : $50 bucks to get a crap-free computer from Sony? |
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Answer» Quote Sony launches a new option, which will give you a $50 discount on your purchase if you choose to crapify it. On Engaget, here. Full StoryAs an editorial from the dot-com boom, suggested: our role as customers, is not to expect good SERVICE or products. Our role is to provide revenue.The saddest part of this is how many people will say Yes.apparently sony saw the err in their ways and vetoed the charge.Quote from: homer on March 22, 2008, 01:28:38 AM apparently sony saw the err in their ways and vetoed the charge. Link to this story: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15365So now the machines will just all be crapified and no option ? ? Sounds about right. Since they're DRM stunt i refuse to purchase anything related to that co. whatsoever...Quote from: patio on March 23, 2008, 08:07:33 AM So now the machines will just all be crapified and no option ? ?According to wired the "Fresh Start" option will still be offered free of charge but only for people who opt for the 100$ upgrade to Vista Business. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/03/sony-pay-an-ext.html But it should also be noted that "Fresh Start" is only available from Sony Japan and only on select models. How can such a huge company be so out of touch with the real world? ... On SECOND thought I think I just answered my own question. That you did.....And more so how can they let a $50 profit determine how they SELL a 12-1500 dollar computer? When I was in retail we were trained to give up $50 worth of gift cards or whatever we (within company policy) could to secure a $1500 SALE. It is sort of baffling. Which would you rather have, a $50 or $1000 sale?Or what if you walked in and asked "hey i'll just take the crapifier stuff for Free " I'm not gonna buy anything though... |
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| 2204. |
Solve : What Happens To Bounced Donotreply.com E-Mails? |
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Answer» http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/03/21/1737248.shtml Quote "The Washington Post's Security Fix blog today features a funny but scary interview with a guy in Seattle who owns the domain name donotreply.com. Apparently, everyone from major US banks to the Transportation Security Administration to contractors in Iraq use some variation on the address in the "From:" field of all e-mails sent out, with the result that bounced e-mails go to the owner of donotreply.com.'With the exception of extreme cases like those MENTIONED above, Faliszek says he long ago stopped trying to ALERT companies about the e-mails he was receiving. It's just not worth it: Faliszek said he is constantly threatened with lawsuits from companies who for one reason or ANOTHER have a difficult time grasping why he is in POSSESSION of their INTERNAL documents and e-mails.'"Heh. Pretty crazy that he's posting some of them on the domain donotreply.com |
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| 2205. |
Solve : fanless fan? |
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Answer» http://itnews.com.au/News/72400,silent-microchip-fan-has-no-moving-parts.aspx http://www.thorrn.com/technology.html Quote Boffins in the US have developed a microchip fan with no moving parts that operates silently and generates enough wind to cool a laptop computer..That's pretty crazy. Hope it REALLY kicks off in the computer industry would be nice to get rid of all or most of the fans in a computer.true. i would like to see how it compares to a 120mm case fan though.Quote from: homer on March 21, 2008, 12:36:34 PM true. i would like to see how it compares to a 120mm case fan though. They could probably just fuse a bunch of them together to get the desired cfm...Quote from: michaewlewis on March 21, 2008, 05:37:01 PM Quote from: homer on March 21, 2008, 12:36:34 PMtrue. i would like to see how it compares to a 120mm case fan though. in that case, i wonder how expensive it might be.The comments on the drawbacks especially ESD were pretty interesting. As one PERSON stated i'm not sure what effects there would be creating a plasma field so close to a CPU...plasma field you say? i wonder how close we are to making one of these bad BOYS... Quote from: homer on March 22, 2008, 01:20:04 AM plasma field you say? i wonder how close we are to making one of these bad boys...I doubt that will cool the computer... The thing itself overheats when used too long. |
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| 2206. |
Solve : Windows Vista SP1 Wreaks Havoc On Some PCs, Users Complain? |
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Answer» HERE A day after it was released for public download, Windows Vista SP1 is drawing barbs from some computer users who say the software wrecked their systems. "I downloaded it via Windows Update, and got a bluescreen on the third PART of the update," wrote "Iggy33" in a comment posted Wednesday onMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Vista team blog. Iggy33 was just one of dozens of posters complaining about Vista Service Pack 1's effect on their PCs. "What a disaster," wrote "SeppDietrich" of the update. "It exiled all my Nvidia drivers to the Bermuda Triangle." "Bikkja" said that "after installing SP1 things seem to go really slow, even though my computer shouldn't have any problems." Other troubles reported by Vista SP1 users ranged from a simple inability to download the software from Microsoft's Windows Update site to sudden spikes in memory usage. "Went from using 650 MB RAM idle to 1 Gig... I'll be switching back," said "Kurrier." It's not uncommon for major software PATCHES to cause problems when first released. Windows XP Service Pack 1 inflicted numerous GLITCHES on host computers when it shipped in 2002. Microsoft fixed many of the problems with subsequent patches. Microsoft on Tuesday made Vista SP1 widely available for the first time. The company has admitted it's still not perfect. The service pack will not install on computers that use peripheral device drivers that Microsoft has deemed incompatible. The list includes a small set of audio and display drivers made by Realtek and Intel (NSDQ: INTC), as well as drivers from several other manufacturers. Microsoft said it's working to resolve the compatibility issues. Computer users with Vista already installed on their systems can now download Vista Service Pack 1 for free from the Windows Update site. Some retailers, includingAmazon (NSDQ: AMZN).com, are offering boxed versions of Vista SP1 for sale starting Wednesday. The software is available in five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Vista SP1 contains numerous features designed to enhance the operating system's speed, performance, and stability. Among other things, it offers a patch that will allow users to run the BitLocker encryption tool on multiple hard DRIVES. It also improves the speed at which the OS wakes up from hibernate mode. SP1 will also remove from Vista the so-called Kill SWITCH -- a feature that deactivated key components of the OS if Microsoft detected users were not running a properly licensed copy of Vista. The feature was plagued by false alarms that flagged thousands of legitimate Vista users as software pirates. All told, Vista SP1 includes more than 300 hot fixes for the OS. Users will need to install three prerequisite files onto their computers before they can upgrade to Vista SP1. Those files are also available through Windows Update. Microsoft is hoping that Windows Vista SP1 will quell some of the disappointment that greeted the operating system's initial rollout early last year. Many corporate and home users complained about its resource requirements and lack of compatibility with existing applications. No one I personally know -- not that it's that many people -- who have any kind of experience with computers has recommended Vista to me; in fact, it's quite the opposite.Ehhhh....I've been running it for 6 months without a single problem.How very interesting...have you had to tweak it a lot, B? (Mr. B )Ask patio. He'll tell you. He loves my Vista tweaks.Anyone who (1) chooses "SeppDietrich" (A Nazi general) as a screen name (2) Didn't Ghost their OS partition first deserves all they get IMHO On a slightly related theme, does anybody know if 5303 is gonna be the release version of XP SP3? [Edit] No it isn't. |
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| 2207. |
Solve : Intel Six Core Processors? |
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Answer» INTEL announced that it will officially release six-core processor during the second half of this year. The CHIP maker also plans to start final production of its Nehalem chips in the fourth quarter of this year. Linkthe nehalem sounds interesting.Quote from: homer on March 18, 2008, 03:39:37 PM the nehalem sounds interesting. ya, who comes up with the names anyways? Maybe someone said "Ahem"... and another GUY thought he said nehalem and used it for the processor name... Quote from: michaewlewis on March 19, 2008, 02:31:15 PM
Gesundheit. Quote from: WillyW on March 19, 2008, 05:59:41 PM Quote from: michaewlewis on March 19, 2008, 02:31:15 PM Ishkabibble... Quote from: patio on March 19, 2008, 06:02:19 PM Quote from: WillyW on March 19, 2008, 05:59:41 PMQuote from: michaewlewis on March 19, 2008, 02:31:15 PM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ish_Kabibble I learned something new TODAY! As did i... Nehalem |
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| 2208. |
Solve : Untangling the web: Japan experts publish map of the net? |
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Answer» Microsoft Website - Storm?Quote from: Comp GUY on October 17, 2007, 11:29:29 PM I don't see Google on it Google is on it. LOOK at the left. Oh, you MEAN Dilbert's map?Quote from: dairyman on October 23, 2007, 05:21:20 PM Quote from: Comp Guy on October 17, 2007, 11:29:29 PMYesAnother interesting site MAPPING the whole internet by listing the owners of all IP addresses.I don't see Google on it http://thewholeinternet.wordtothewise.com/?iref=mpstoryview OOF thats niceAnother great map of the submarine cable system across the world. http://www.telegeography.com/products/map_cable/index.php Link to large wallpaper sized image |
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| 2209. |
Solve : Vista SP1 to hit Windows Update Tuesday, reports say? |
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Answer» HERE Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience, according to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from a Web site that correctly called SP1's ship date last month. Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, SAID users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. Vista SP1 shipped to DUPLICATION and OEMs Feb. 4, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. In fact, subscribers to TechNet and Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) only got access to SP1 after raising a ruckus, with some threatening to cancel their subscriptions and others saying they would postpone Vista deployment. Most Vista users, however, have been unable to obtain the service pack. That was a conscious decision on the part of Microsoft, which said that the delay was caused by a small number of hardware device drivers that won't properly reinstall during the SP1 upgrade. Microsoft said it needed extra time to identify the drivers and set up blocking mechanisms that will prevent users whose PCs have those drivers from receiving SP1. Microsoft has never identified the balky drivers or the responsible hardware manufacturers. Retail buyers of the new version of Vista face no such driver problem, Microsoft has said. According to Amazon.com, customers after packaged retail copies of SP1 can get them beginning Tuesday, March 19. The online retailer's listings also reflect the new prices Microsoft set for Vista after it cut prices by up to 48% late last month. Price cuts in the U.S., however, were significantly smaller: 15-20%. Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade, for example, lists on Amazon for $129.95, the price Microsoft pinned on it Feb. 28, and down from the earlier $159.95; Amazon, however, is selling that upgrade for $94.99. Meanwhile, the Malaysian Web site that called Vista SP1's RTM has reported that current Vista users will be able to download and install SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. TechARP.com named Tuesday as the first possible start date for what it dubbed "End-User Manual Update." Since early February, Microsoft has said that Vista users would receive SP1 in "mid-March" by either selecting the optional update in Windows Update or downloading a standalone installer from Microsoft's Download Center site. Only in April would it start pushing SP1 to all Vista users who have Windows Update's Automatic Updates set to automatically retrieve and install important fixes. (TechARP has named April 18 as that date.) When asked to confirm the March 18 delivery date for SP1, a Microsoft spokeswoman only repeated the company's earlier statements. "In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update and the download center on microsoft.com," she said in an e-mail. "Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1. Any SYSTEM that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not upgrade successfully will not be offered SP1." It's unclear so far how a February snafu with affect SP1's roll-out. Last month, after Microsoft pushed a pair of prerequisite patches to users, some reported that their machines refused to finish installing one of the fixes, then WENT into an endless series of reboots. Several days later, Microsoft pulled the update from automatic delivery, said it was working on a solution and promised it would "make the update available again shortly after we address the issue." That update was designated 937287 and described in a support document, with the same number. Microsoft has not re-released it to Windows Update as an automatic download/install. Asked to explain how users will be able to download and install SP1 this month without the prerequisite, Microsoft's spokespeople said that the endless reboot problem and the subsequent withdrawal of 937287 would not impact SP1's schedule. "The temporary removal of the prerequisite from automatic updates will not affect the SP1 release schedule -- we are on schedule to release Windows Visa SP1 to Windows Update and the download center in mid-March and to users using Automatic Update in mid-April," different spokeswomen said as recently as last week.False alarm...i predict another 3 weeks.Are you the lucky owner of: Looks like that magic-eight-ball failed. Vista SP1 32-bit and 64-bit has been released. I haven't run it yet but if anyone does let us know your results. 32-bit Vista version download 64-bit Vista version download 435 M......dial-up: 17 hr 40 min I'll rather wait for innocent victims to try it....QUOTE from: Broni on March 18, 2008, 06:05:06 PM I'll rather wait for innocent victims to try it.... "patio" is what he really meant to say. How did you know?64bit version here...so far no hiccups and i'll keep you posted.Don't complain anymore, though, that I'm after your Vista settings....LOL |
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| 2210. |
Solve : Test your browser? |
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Answer» http://acid3.acidtests.org/ My results............. IE7: FF2, FF2(Safe Mode), both same: Opera: IE8 BETA: FF3 beta: Uhhhhhhh....... what was the score for IE7? What a failure. All Browsers failed ...some more miserably than others.Here's a list of how various browser versions fare on the ACID-3 test. http://www.anomalousanomaly.com/2008/03/06/acid-3/ Currently a beta build of Apple's Safari browser gets the highest score with 90%. Also notice that IE 5.5 scores HIGHER than both IE 6 and 7 and the beta build of 8 only scores 3% higher. Nice link, Deerpark Indeed nice FIND Deerpark. Although while visiting the link the site went down for some reason? But I did manage to see the results and it's SURPRISING the beta of IE 8 didn't do better. I assumed with MICROSOFT saying how focused they were going to be on web standards that it would of done better. |
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| 2211. |
Solve : Nuclear Catastrophe in Switzerland Spam? |
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Answer» Be aware: Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security CONSULTING, a computer security consultancyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitnick |
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| 2212. |
Solve : Google Poisoned Links are Bitter Indeed? |
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Answer» HERE Reports emerged this week from a Holland-based internet security consultant, Dancho Danchev, of a new technique - known as poison Google links - being used by hackers attempting to use legitimate Google searches as a vector to smuggle malware onto the machines of unsuspecting users. So far the poisoned Google links all contain the string “IFRAME SRC=//” followed by an IP address, most recently and commonly 72.232.39.252, but that could change in a heartbeat. Example of poisoned Google link search result: The technique exploits a common method that many sites use to assist search bots. User-entered search strings are RETAINED and made available to the bots, which index them and later include them in the search results provided to other users. The hackers targetted several CNET-owned sites, among them ZDNet Asia and TorrentReactor, filling in the search box with the names of frequently-sought actresses. Except they added HTML iframe text containing the payload - links to sites that when accessed attempted to download malicious software with innocent-sounding names, like XP Antivirus 2008 and Spy Shredder Scanner. Don’t be confused, gentle reader, for these are rogues and trojans. Google has long-attempted to identify sites that host malware, and to warn users who click on a suspect URL returned by a search. Yet their best efforts can only slow down and not prevent the online criminals, who in attempting to GAIN some control of your machine have come increasingly to prefer to gain their access through compromising legitimate sites, using such iframe injection exploits. Indeed, this new exploit is most effective when targeted at legitimate sites having high page ranks. It was reported this week that between 20,000 and 50,000 poisoned Google links were present on the ZDNet Asia site alone, with another 50,000 poisoned links at TV.com and a smaller number for News.com and MySimon.com. So, Windows users, if you see in your returned Google search the telling “IFRAME SRC=//” followed by an IP address, don’t - whatever you do, DON’T - click on the link, for it is almost certainly a poisoned link. INSTEAD, click gently on the back button in your browser and breath a sigh of relief at your narrow escape.Yikes! Our thanks, again. |
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| 2213. |
Solve : Quad core notebook!? |
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Answer» I DONT know if you GUYS have SEEN another quad-core notebook with sli graphic cards, but it sure is my FIRST time. |
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| 2214. |
Solve : Atlantis Nova? |
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Answer» HERE GREAT little word processor that does it all -- except charge you a bundle. Atlantis Nova is a Microsoft Word competitor that adheres to the 10/90 theory of software design: It provides the 10 percent of the word processing features that most people need to get 90 percent of their work done. And it's small enough?684 KB installed?to fit on a thumb drive. While the free Nova version is not a total replacement for MS Word, it's a DELIGHT to use in its own right. Most of your tasks?outside of your basic typing?are done through icon-studded toolbars, controlled by a switch that instantly flips you between two sets of three-line toolbars. Atlantis Nova is perfect for traveling with an underpowered and cramped notebook, and it's not bad back on the desktop. If you need to include differential equations in your documents or create indices and tables of references, you'd best look elsewhere, perhaps in the direction of the new Atlantis Word Processor, the brawnier big brother of Nova, which costs $35 (30-day free trial) and includes features such as automatic spell-as-you-type, double precautions against losing documents, drag-and-drop, ENCRYPTION, and a "control panel" to handle complex layouts. sounds nice, but i'm gonna stick with AbiWord. |
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| 2215. |
Solve : Microsoft Details Internet Explorer 8.0, Introduces Beta? |
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Answer» Internet Explorer 8.0 is a shift from previous versions in that it focuses heavily on complying with WEB standards. LinkIE needs better interface. it looks kind of ugly for some reason. (sorry if somebody likes the interface )I use Firefox. However, for those users who use IE and don't like the interface there are some skins/mods out there that can improve on the overall look of the interface.well for one there are always other browsers to use. Avant. Maxthon. Crazy Browser. And a whole lot of other browsers that are basically internet explorer with some extra coding to add features or new skins.More problems on the horizon...ehhhhIt's about time IE complies with the Web standards, although it will probably still be able to do IE 7 style rendering for all the sites that are designed incorrectly because of IE.i wonder if ie8's web standard compliance apply to all websites that require those checks to run as intended or else it runs like ie7... I installed it on my test XP, and it ran OK. I didn't have much time for playing, but my friend said, it was crashing his Windows, and some pages were not displaying properly.So there are lot of bugs in it... thanks for the info.Still in beta, but I'm not accepting any bets....Firefox 3 beta 4 came out and I gave it a short test. So far it's doing fine with a better buttons and all. The only thing is the addons which don't always work but that's all right for a beta.I updated it two days ago. Don't EXPECT too many fully compatible add-ons until final version is released.Quote from: Broni on March 13, 2008, 10:54:27 PM I updated it two days ago. Create a Profile called "Test" or whatever you want. Then use Mr.Tech Local Install extension to install any extensions you want.... I suggest only one at a time. You'ld be suprised how many good ones will work. And if it crashes it won't affect your User Profile. Very good idea...thanks.Tested the BETA on my Vista build...utter crap. Just an opinion ...YMMV. |
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| 2216. |
Solve : Spammers Now Using TinyURL to Avoid Spam Filters? |
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Answer» HERE Spammers are now CLOAKING their website domains in their spam by abusing the TinyURL service. TinyURL is a service which allows you to enter a gawd-awful long URL, and turn it into a, well, tiny URL, which then forwards to the gawd-awful long one. But now spammers are abusing the service, using a TinyURL link to their website in their spam, rather than their true website link, presumably so that their website DOMAIN doesn’t get blocked by anti-spam services - or even because their website domain is already being blocked by anti-spam services. In some instances, the TinyURL service is being used as a conduit for affiliate spam - where the affiliate cloaks their affiliate link with the TinyURL - this has the added CREEP factor of not only cloaking the domain of the program the affiliate is spamming for, but helping that domain avoid detection as having their affiliate program work with spammers (which can carry harsh penalties under the Federal anti-spam law, CAN-SPAM). Take, for example, this spam below. Note the TinyURL link, which we have bolded here for your reading ease - it resolves to http://www.advanced-intelligence.com/index.html?2735 - that 2735 at the end is almost certainly an affiliate identifier. Sorry, Advanced-Intelligence.com Affiliate #2735, no sale today!: Quote “I was recently reviewing Spy Gadgets sites in some of the major search engines and I came across your web site: Theinternetpatrol.com. Out of all the sites I came across yours really stood out for me and If you could please spare me just two minutes I have a business proposition for you as you are in the same market as I am.Why in the nine rings of Hades don't these people put their talents to the positive benefit of humankind??? (That's a rhetorical question.) |
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| 2217. |
Solve : Microsoft readies Office for Patch Tuesday? |
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Answer» HERE Microsoft is set to release FOUR ‘critical' UPDATES on 11th March for all supported versions of its Office suite. The updates are targeted at various Office flaws, all of which can be exploited by a hacker to remotely execute code on a target PC. This Tuesday the FIRM will patch Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. VERSION 2004 and 2008 for Macintosh and Microsoft Office Web Components 2000 will also be updated. The software vendor will also deliver three high-priority, non-security updates simultaneously. According to reports, it's the first time that the Redmond-based company has released a set of patches related to Office that are all labeled critical - the highest alert level on Microsoft's scale. For more info on the firm's forthcoming Patch Tuesday release, click HERE |
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| 2218. |
Solve : EU fines Microsoft record $1.3 billion? |
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Answer» The European Union fined Microsoft Corp. a record $1.3 billion on Wednesday for charging rivals too much for software information. LinkI see them losing this one...and i don't mean MS. MS is tired of the lawsuit circle and will probably fight this one successfully.I'd agree. If by some CHANCE they didn't win this after several years of fighting it I'm SURE it would be reduced significantly. If they lost and had to pay that that would be a HUGE loss.Yeah, I don't really see the EU winning this one. It'd be cheaper to just not bother.Well i heard from a friend the Legal Team at MS GREW i50% in the last 18 months and they are still RECRUITING...Quote from: CBMATT on February 27, 2008, 07:33:02 PM Yeah, I don't really see the EU winning this one. Why? Quote from: Dias de verano on March 01, 2008, 10:04:40 AM Quote from: CBMatt on February 27, 2008, 07:33:02 PMCause they won Round One....Yeah, I don't really see the EU winning this one. Gates is stubborn.... It's an Election Year... Choose one or all of the above.Heck, just take a look at their claim. Unless they get a biased trial, I really don't see the court being in favor of EU. But maybe that's just me. |
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| 2219. |
Solve : Drive-By Web Attacks...? |
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Answer» Quote If you haven't changed the default password on your HOME router, do so now. That's what researchers at Symantec and Indiana University are saying, after PUBLISHING the results of tests that show how ATTACKERS could take over your home router USING malicious JavaScript code. Full Story |
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| 2220. |
Solve : IBM Proposes One Computer to Run Entire Internet? |
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Answer» Dreaming BIG; IBM looks to host entire internet on a single modified Blue Gene supercomputer. Link"Dave...my MIND is going..." It is a cool concept, intellectually speaking...but there's a REASON (or maybe a few) it's an Internet... |
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| 2221. |
Solve : Microsoft urges users to check Windows DST? |
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Answer» HERE On the eve of Daylight Savings Time TAKING effect in the U.S. and Canada, Microsoft Corp. has POSTED an interactive assistant to help procrastinating Windows users update their PCs to account for the time change. In most of the U.S. and Canada, Daylight Savings Time (DST) goes into effect Sunday, March 9, at 2:00 a.m. local time. Clocks are to be moved forward one hour. Microsoft's Daylight Saving Time Update Guide guides home users, small business and corporate IT administrators, and Windows Mobile users through a Q&A format designed to pinpoint what updates, if any, need to be applied. Most users running Windows Vista, or those who have had Automatic Updates enabled for Windows Update, will not need to update. Vista, for example, has always accounted for the changes to DST that first took effect last year. Meanwhile, users who have turned on Automatic Updates should have received all DST-related fixes as they were released by Microsoft. The company issued its most recent cumulative DST update in December 2007, for instance. Even so, Microsoft recommended that users take the time to run though the DST Update Guide. "Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone SETTINGS for your computer's system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period," said the text accompanying the guide. "In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated." The guide directs users to the proper downloads for Windows and date-sensitive applications, such as Microsoft Outlook. In some cases, it instructs them to contact their company's help desk. Last year, when the U.S. instituted are revised DST schedule that moved the time change up several weeks, early reports said there had been few snafus. Later, however, Microsoft confirmed that in some cases, Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 wouldn't update properly, forcing users to MANUALLY adjust their PCs' clocks. |
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| 2222. |
Solve : Posting Publicly Available URL Claimed a "Hack"? |
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Answer» http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/03/07/163232.shtml Quote "Popular mobile phone community HowardForums.com is being hit with take-down notices from MobiTV. At issue is the fact that a HowardForums community MEMBER uncovered a publicly accessible URL for MobiTV's television stream. This URL is not ENCRYPTED or authenticated in any way, and yet MobiTV sent site owner Howard Chui a cease-and-desist letter for hosting a forum with the public URL, claiming that doing so is equivalent to hacking their service." take-down notices publicly accessible URLLegally speaking MobiTV doesn't have a LEG to stand on...Oh, come now...you don't want them to admit to MAKING a rather LARGE mistake, now do you? I would love it if they did. They should. To me, it makes them more credible than just throwing to the lawyers... |
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| 2223. |
Solve : Hack into a Windows PC - no password needed? |
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Answer» A security consultant based in New Zealand has released a tool that can unlock Windows computers in seconds without the need for a password. Adam Boileau first demonstrated the hack, which AFFECTS Windows XP computers but has not yet been tested with Windows Vista, at a security conference in Sydney in 2006, but Microsoft has yet to develop a fix. LinkYes, the article does indeed reference disabling one's Firewire port/s when not using it/them... Please, good hackers of the world, keep writing those Linux-based DRIVERS, so we can run more and more of our equipment on Linux!!i really DONT LIKE linux. at all Hey, Linux is pretty great, and getting BETTER all the time. What Linux needs is more hardware drivers! |
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| 2224. |
Solve : New Windows Vista Hack Circulating? |
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Answer» HERE Software pirates have reportedly hacked Windows Vista so that a stolen copy can run as though it were a fully licensed and activated version. A group of notorious software pirates has hacked Windows Vista so that a stolen copy of the operating system can run as though it were a fully licensed and activated version, according to various Internet reports and blog posts Monday. The hack, or "crack," as such techniques are sometimes called, was developed by the hacking group Pantheon. It's based on the fact that copies of Vista shipped in large volumes to PC manufacturers don't require full product activation, according to reports. It wasn't immediately clear if the hack has been widely exploited. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) estimates that global piracy costs the software INDUSTRY about $40 billion per YEAR in lost sales. Of late, the company has been hunting down hackers and pirates more aggressively. In December, Microsoft announced that a joint effort with the FBI and Chinese authorities helped bust up a major ring of software counterfeiters operating from the city of Guangdong in southern China. The gang was allegedly responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than $2 billion in fake Microsoft software, the company said. Also last year, Microsoft announced lawsuits in six states against companies it accuses of participating in the gray market software trade. The suits were filed in federal courts in California, New York, New Jersey, FLORIDA, Nevada, and Montana. Unlike software pirates -- who illegally create and sell counterfeit copies of commercial software -- gray marketers profit by selling software in ways that violate the manufacturer's licensing terms. Microsoft is drastically lowering its prices in some emerging markets -- in part to lower INCENTIVES to commit software piracy in areas of the world where the practice has become rampant. Microsoft last week said the price of boxed versions of Windows Vista will be reduced by almost half in some parts of Asia. There is no such thing as a software that can't be cracked. I'm sure though now that it's in the open Microsoft will crack down on it and it will no longer work after a few weeks.I did some more search, and it looks like the above hack has been out there for about a month, and apparently Vista hacked with it, passes validation tool with flying colors.But is it something Microsoft cannot block? The article doesn't SEEM to say one way or another if it is. But if it's been out for over a month maybe it's something that can't be. Immediately made me think that maybe this was the reason behind Microsoft's move to lower the cost of Vista, something they've never done in the past.Quote But is it something Microsoft cannot block?Unfortunately (LOL), I'm not a hacker, so I can't answer this question. As for lowering Vista's price, I may be wrong, but I think, it has more to do with Vista sales not meeting Micro$oft expectations.i don't know but there is this OEM toolkit you can download and there is some keys there. I guess you just have to update to latest bios version and activate your computer like dell or hp OEM does? ( i am not encouraging anyone to pirate but this seems to be legal?) |
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| 2225. |
Solve : Mozilla Thunderbird Multiple Vulnerabilities - Highly critical!!!? |
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Answer» TITLE: |
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| 2226. |
Solve : Give your computer the sense of touch? |
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Answer» Researchers at Carnegie Mellon UNIVERSITY (CMU) have developed a new haptic interface using magnetic LEVITATION to GIVE computer users the sense of TOUCH. Unlike current haptic SYSTEMS, this new device doesn’t use gloves or robotic arms. It uses ‘magnetic levitation and a single moving part to give users a highly realistic experience.’ So far, 10 prototypes have been built and some of them will go to Harvard, Stanford, Purdue or Cornell. With this haptic interface, which will take a big chunk of your desk, you will be able to perceive textures and feel hard contacts. But don’t expect to use it before several years. Link |
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| 2227. |
Solve : Electronic tattoo display runs on blood? |
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Answer» Wow this is crazy!! |
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| 2228. |
Solve : 10 Confessions Of A Circuit City FireDog Technician? |
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Answer» HERE 10. The hiring process doesn't actually have any qualifications required beyond you saying you know what you're doing. Most techs that are hired know little more than the basics, and learn as they go. You can't really have an experienced tech work on your machine, because once you leave, it may sit there for a few days, and who knows who will work on it then. I was required to TAKE my Microsoft Certified Professional exam, but when I failed the first time, that was okay too. I never went back to take it again, and no one said a word. 9. "FD COURTESYCHECK" isn't a real SKU, it means the customer was good looking, and the tech should check to see if they have any "personal" pictures worth keeping. One customer was a professional *censored* model, over 2,000 IMAGES got backed up on to the tech work machine. 8.Nothing they will offer you for installation is worth it. The standard package includes Norton Internet Security, Webroot Spysweeper, and Microsoft Office Home and Student as well as the creation of recovery DVDs and an "optimization". Norton isn't as good as AVG Anti-Virus, available for free. Webroot isn't as good as Spybot Search and Destroy, which is also available for free. The recovery DVDs are made in a few clicks, and could be done by a three year old. Optimization consists of uninstalling some junk programs, and deleting icons off of your desktop. All of this takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and could be done just as easily by you, at home. 7.Protection plans don't always cover anything special. Batteries, for example, are covered by most manufacturers warranties, but are often used as part of the sales pitch when buying a laptop. "If your battery goes out, we cover that too - all you need to do is bring it in and we will replace it free of charge." Often times, this process can take a month and is generally faster to just order it through the manufacturer. 6.Your computer may well sit around for days without anyone looking at it. If we were low on computers to work on, we would often drag repairs out for days past when they should be done, just so we looked busy. If we weren't working on a machine, we would have to go help out on the sales floor. I've seen machines sit for as long as three weeks because of a lack of customers 5.Don't always expect a new part if you try to rush them on a repair. Sometimes, when we had a customer that kept bugging us because a part on his computer was taking forever to come in, we would just swap the part out with one off of a display computer to "expedite things". When the new part would come in, we would just return it as used. 4.Don't expect a call back. The techs don't care about your repair, and it's rare that they will call you for much of anything but to pick it up when it's done. If you want status updates or anything else, even if they tell you they will call, they more than likely won't. Call the store and ask for the tech on duty, you don't need to talk to the one that you turned it in to - they won't necessarily work on it anyway. Also, it's company policy to have a tech on duty, so if someone tells you that they aren't there, chances are they're lying. 3.99% of all software repairs can be completed in a day. There is next to no reason that your repair will take a week, and if you ask for it to get it rushed, they will charge you an extra $20 or more, and put it in line with everything else. Unless you demand same day SERVICE, you won't see any special treatment. Even then, it's unlikely to be done the same day. 2.The salesmen know absolutely jack about the computers they sell. Most of them are just high school or college kids that may or may not have any interest in computers at all. A few of they may not even own a machine. The sales training that Circuit City requires everyone to take is 100% about how to pitch things, and 0% how things work or what they do. Do all your homework before you make your purchase, and don't listen to anything they have to say. Many of them will say anything they have to to get you to buy whatever it is they want you to buy. One of the worst I ever heard is that if one woman didn't buy the protection plan the salesman was offering, she wouldn't be able to get any updates for her software. Another man didn't want to buy our anti- virus software, and the salesman told him that he would contract a virus as soon as he plugged it in to the internet if he didn't install one first. 1.Circuit City takes no responsibility for your data. If somehow a tech magically wipes your entire harddrive, the waiver that you sign when you check it in clears them of any wrongdoing. They could quite literally just reformat for the FUN of it, give it back to you, and there is nothing you could do about it. Always back up your data before taking it in.That's an eye opener. LOL Seriously, it's a bit shocking, I'd say. I wonder if geek squad is the same way? Good article I enjoyed it.Quote from: 1bd4t6h on February 02, 2008, 01:01:30 AM I wonder if geek squad is the same way? Good article I enjoyed it. Not at all.....they're worse. The above is intended as opinion and is not to be attributed in any legal manner whatsoever...Quote The above is intended as opinion and is not to be attributed in any legal manner whatsoever......fearing any lawsuit?.....LOOOOOOOOL geeksquad? In my area, this was an issue with them few months ago: Quote it means the customer was good looking, and the tech should check to see if they have any "personal" pictures worth keeping. One customer was a professional *censored* model, over 2,000 images got backed up on to the tech work machine. Quote One customer was a professional *censored* model, over 2,000 images got backed up on to the tech work machine.^^ in that case, i'd love to work there |
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| 2229. |
Solve : Microsoft WorldWide Telescope? |
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Answer» Interesting new product coming from Microsoft (for free) that ALLOWS you to explore space. A GOOD video demonstrating it is on Ted. |
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| 2230. |
Solve : Microsoft attempts to placate "Save XP" campaign? |
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Answer» HERE Microsoft has issued an unconvincing response to the popular "Save XP" campaign, after 75,000 people signed up. The "Save XP" petition is being run by Infoworld with the aim of making XP available indefinitely. Microsoft intends to cease selling the operating SYSTEM on 30 JUNE, but has been forced to make some conciliatory noises in the face of the protest. "We're aware of it, but are listening first and foremost to feedback we hear from partners and customers about what MAKES sense based on their needs," a spokesperson told Infoworld. "That's what informed our decision to extend the availability of XP initially, and what will continue to guide us." Unfortunately the explanation fails to address the fact that many of those signing the petition are Microsoft customers, as evidenced by their video submissions on the site explaining why they or their businesses aren't interested in making the switch to Vista from XP. The spokesperson goes on to admit that Windows XP won't DISAPPEAR from the market entirely after 30 June, because there are customers that require "a little more time" before moving to Vista. "Therefore OEMs will continue to sell XP through 30 June 2008 and system builders will be able to sell XP through January 2009 as they cater to the SMALL business markets," a Microsoft spokesperson tells Infoworld. "In emerging markets where XP Starter Edition is sold, it will still be available through 30 June 2010." |
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| 2231. |
Solve : Researchers Transmit Optical Data at 16.4 Tbps Over 1,500 Miles? |
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Answer» FiOS, you ain't GOT nothing on this: Alcatel-Lucent RESEARCHERS in France have SUCCESSFULLY transmitted OPTICAL data at an absolutely blazing speed of 16.4 Tbps over a distance of over 1,500 miles. Link |
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| 2232. |
Solve : Windows Live Captcha - Cracked? |
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Answer» http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/08/microsoft_captcha_buster/ Spammers are using a sophisticated piece of software that can create thousands of Windows Live email addresses by CRACKING the protections designed to PREVENT the large-scale CREATION of fraudulent accounts. According to security firm Websense, the bot is surreptitiously installed on the PCs of end users. It then establishes a connection to the registration page of the Microsoft-owned mail service. About a third of the time, the software is able to bypass the Captcha requirement through a process that researchers have yet to precisely figure out. The executable software,has already led to a surge of spam being sent from the Microsoft-owned service, said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research at Websense. Its discovery comes a few weeks after the release of proof-of-concept code that defeats a similar Captcha used by Yahoo! Mail. Free email services from Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google are rarely blocked by anti-spam products, making accounts on those services highly prized by spammers. In the past week or so, Websense antispam filters have gone from blocking fewer than 100 Windows Live accounts per day to a number that's in the thousands. "Some customers were actually flagging the mail as legitimate because it was coming from Microsoft Live," said Hubbard. "Clearly, (spammers) are using the fact that (the services) are legitimate." Short for "completely AUTOMATED public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart," Captchas have emerged as a key barrier hindering scammers who want to create large numbers of fake online accounts. In some cases, Captcha-cracking has involved software that transmits the graphic to third-party website that promises a visitor free porn in exchange for typing in the characters. Other times, programs using highly specialized heuristics algorithms try to guess the characters, based on the arrangement of the pixels. "Captcha breaking has been one of the largest targets of malware operators for some time, even to the point that they will go and farm out the job to human beings," said Adam O'Donnell, a research scientist at antispam company Cloudmark. "It's that profitable." For years now, the forces of good and evil have been engaged in an arms race of sorts, in which new Captcha cracks beget stronger Captcha images, which in turn lead to more advanced cracks. Hubbard said a Websense honeynet recently caught malware. When researchers installed it on a lab machine, they discovered that in addition to sending spam, it attempted to create the Windows Live accounts. The software cuts Microsoft's Captcha image and sends it to a server controlled by the scammers. The server then sends the text contained in the image back to the infected PC. The answer is correct as much as 35 per cent of the time. "We don't know what the process is," said Hubbard. One possibility is that there are human being on the other end, but Hubbard is leaning away from that theory because it would require hundreds of people to make it WORK. It's also possible the spammers have found a new type of Captcha-cracking software. Besides being rarely blocked by spam filters, accounts with big email services are valuable to spammers for other reasons. For one, they're free. And for another, the millions of other accounts held by legitimate users makes it hard for the services to pinpoint mass mailers. Don't count on this cat-and-mouse match ending anytime soon. ® |
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| 2233. |
Solve : Japanese cellphones to turn into 'robot' buddies? |
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Answer» Maybe I'm getting older and out of touch, but can ANYONE EXPLAIN to me why someone would WANT something like this? |
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| 2234. |
Solve : Internet Explorer Multiple Vulnerabilities - Highly critical!!!? |
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Answer» TITLE: |
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| 2235. |
Solve : Microsoft cuts price for boxed Vista? |
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Answer» Microsoft Corp. will CUT the price of some versions of Windows VISTA, the software maker said late Thursday. The move came a day after court filings revealed internal dissent over which Windows XP computers would be considered capable of running the new OPERATING system — and a FEELING on at LEAST one executive's part that the company had "botched" the marketing of computers as "Vista Capable.". Link |
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| 2236. |
Solve : Performance Results Mixed with Vista Service Pack 1? |
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Answer» HERE PC World benchmarks show improved system performance but some tasks recorded slower performance with SP1. Microsoft's newly released Service Pack 1 may solve some of the performance glitches that have annoyed Windows Vista users and discouraged others from adopting the OS, but it doesn't appear from our tests to be a PANACEA--at least with respect to performance. In our first tests of the service pack, file copying, one of the main performance-related complaints from Vista users, was significantly faster. But other tests showed little improvement and in two tests, our experience was actually a little better without the service pack installed than with it. Service Pack 1 was recently released to manufacturing, and officially sent out to reviewers on Feb. 6. (Service Pack 1 was also unofficially unleashed on Feb. 6 on BitTorrent, too). Service Pack 1 will be available to users in March, as a download; Microsoft plans to have SP1 integrated into Windows Vista at retail as well, but could not give a timeline on how quickly the update will be included in the retail version of Vista. We've already covered many aspects of SP1 in previous looks at the initial SP1 beta last fall, and the more recent SP1 Release Candidate that became available in January. A quick recap: Though many of SP1's benefits lie hidden within the bowels of the OS (such as support for standards like Extensible Firmware Interface and Extended File Allocation Table), SP1 is packed with performance enhancements as well. According to Microsoft, more tangible improvements include improved performance when copying, compressing, and extracting files, improved boot and power down times, improved network performance, and other performance-related fixes. Microsoft says Windows Vista SP1 will be about 60MB when delivered over Windows Update. I took the RTM of Vista Service Pack SP1 down to the PC World Test Center this afternoon and unleashed it across a variety of systems to SEE how it performed. These tests are preliminary and informal ones; the PC World Test Center is working on additional testing, and we'll post additional information--and update this story--as it comes available. Service Pack 1: Installation For my installation and file copy tests, I installed Service Pack 1 on a fairly high-end system: Polywell's $4000 Poly P3503-3DT, a model packed with a 3-GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 CPU, 4GB of memory, and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. The first thing I noticed during the installation process was Windows Vista's friendly warning that the installation might take an hour or more. My experience was, pleasantly, far from that: The installation process required just 27 minutes, less than half of what I experienced with the first beta of SP1 back in September 2007. Your experience may vary greatly, DEPENDING upon your system's configuration, though: A Dell Inspiron 1420 notebook (with 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU and 2GB of memory) required just 30 minutes to complete; but two other, less powerful systems took far longer to complete the installation. SP1 required three reboots in all. During a good portion of the installation time, about 18 minutes, Vista reported it was just preparing the configuration, before actually proceeding with the installation. File Copy: Performance Notably Improved I performed a series of tests before and after installing SP1. The first test was a file copy test, identical to the one I performed on the beta last fall. I did three passes, copying 1.9GB of files (562 JPEG images) from a 2GB Kingston SD Card to the PC. Pre-SP1, the file copy averaged 384 seconds; post-SP1, the copy process showed a noticeable improvement, averaging just 348 seconds to complete the same task. That's a 9 percent improvement, a difference you're likely to notice. I'm encouraged by that improvement. It's not life-altering when you're talking about just 2GB of data, but if the performance improvement holds across larger data sets, that will be a big boon to anyone copying data in the Vista environment. Some Results Slower In addition to the file copy test, I timed several passes of system startup and SHUTDOWN, with a waiting period of at least five minutes prior to shutdown. Here, I saw virtually no change in the system's pre-SP1 and post-SP1 performance. Pre-SP1, startup time averaged 58 seconds, and shutdown time averaged 8 seconds. Post-SP1, those times were virtually unchanged: Startup time averaged 55 seconds, while shutdown time averaged 7 seconds. Finally, on two additional systems, I tried some extra informal tests, to get a feel for whether the performance boosts were pervasive. Both tests--neither of which are conclusive--actually showed the opposite, unfortunately. The first test was on an Acer VM460-UD2180C system running a 2-GHz Pentium Dual-Core E2180 CPU, 1GB of memory, and Windows Vista Business: In two passes of copying five 500MB files into a .Zip archive using WinZip 10 (a third-party compression app), the pre-Vista SP1 result was actually slightly faster than the post-SP1 result: 372 seconds to 386 seconds. The second informal test--copying multiple files into a disk image file using Nero 7 Ultra--was on a Gateway GM5632E running a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, 3GB of memory, and Windows Vista Home Premium. This time around, too, the machine took about 3 percent longer after I installed SP1 than before. UPDATE--Benchmarks: Minor Improvements (Updated 2/11/2008) From our testing so far, the Vista SP1 update won't necessarily have a dramatic impact on your daily computing experience. The PC World Test Center has completed running its PC WorldBench 6 benchmarks on five systems upgraded with Windows with SP1, and the results were very close to those systems' pre-SP1 scores. The systems--a mix of NOTEBOOKS and desktops--improved by an average 2 points on the WorldBench 6 tests. Of the two notebooks we tested, the Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 with 2GB of memory moved up from an 83 to an 85 on WorldBench 6. Similarly, the HP Pavilion dv9500t (2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 with 2GB of memory) moved from a 73 to a 75. The three desktops saw a slightly wider spread. The HP Pavilion Slimline s3300z (1.9-GHz Athlon X2 BE-2300 and 2GB of RAM) went from 62 to 63; the Acer VM460-UD2180C (2-GHz Pentium Dual-Core E2180 and 1GB of memory) went from 66 to 68; and the high-end Polywell Poly P3503-3DT (3-GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and 4GB of memory) went from 111 to 114. We could discern no clear trends when we dissected the WorldBench 6 results into to examine the 10 tasks that comprise the WorldBench 6 score. The one observation we could make was that SP1 helped boost some task performance times, and it slowed others--and that it wasn't consistent across the systems (for example, on our Adobe Photoshop CS2 file opening and manipulation test, performance improved on three systems, but lagged slightly behind on two others). In all cases, the differences were small--less than 3 percent. More Testing to Come Based on my informal tests conducted in the first hours of having Vista Service Pack 1 in hand, it's hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions. However, these mixed results do show some promise--and also show that your experience with SP1 may vary depending upon the system configuration. Our Test Center will continue to perform further, more in-depth testing of Vista Service Pack 1 to determine to what degree Microsoft has succeeded in fixing some of the flaws and frustrations in its operating system. We'll keep you posted on the results (updated 2/11/08). A service Pak that's 4 times the size of the OS they had less than 8 years ago is bound to have issues... I'll wait at least couple of weeks with that thing. I see no rush. My Vista is working totally fine.Quote from: Broni on February 12, 2008, 09:51:00 PM I'll wait at least couple of weeks with that thing. I see no rush. My Vista is working totally fine. Of course it is...you're buggerin mine instead.That's my duty...hehehe |
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| 2237. |
Solve : VLC Media Player MP4 Demuxer Arbitrary Memory Overwrite - Highly critical!!!? |
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Answer» TITLE: |
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| 2238. |
Solve : Windows Updates - a lot? |
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Answer» I had today: |
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| 2239. |
Solve : The Company Behind All That Address Book Scraping? |
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Answer» HERE According to a tip RECEIVED by the Internet Patrol, the resident evil behind the THRONGS of social networking and other sites that are tricking people into logging into their AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail accounts, and scraping their address book, has a name, and that name is Sigma Visual Technologies. Sigma Visual Technologies provides software that allows sites to get their users to import and email all of their contacts in their address books. Put another way, it lets these sites scrape and spam your contacts. In your name! As the number of social networking sites such as Facebook, Quechup and Flixster that trick their users into logging into their AOL, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and other similar accounts so that the site can scrape and spam their contacts from their address books, continues to grow, and as those sites continue to claim that it’s ok, because “everybody is doing it,” one company is quietly cleaning up. That company is Sigma Visual Technologies, one company that makes the software that these social networking sites are using to scrape their users’ Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL address books. Sigma Visual Technologies - SVT for short - boasts that it can sell you importing scripts for “Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Orkut, Microsoft Outlook, MSN, Multiply, Plaxo, Photobucket, Bigpond, MySpace, and Freemail.hu” with “others coming soon.” The site is rife with typos and misspelling, and poor grammar, but that apparently hasn’t stopped COMPANIES from buying the software, and scraping (the s and c are silent) their users’ address books. Says the Sigma Visual site, “This product of Sigma Visual Technologies offers it’s customers a opportunity to import contact list from any Email Service Provider including Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Orkut, Microsoft Outlook, MSN, Multiply, Plaxo, Photobucket, Bigpond, myspace, Freemail.hu etc. If you want AddressBook Importer for the above mentioned services in (php, asp and jsp) then you can simply order us at [emailprotected] If you want us to develop such script for some other Email Service Provider then you can order us so that we can develop it for you.Please send your orders to have our quote. Examples of Similar Importers: hi5.com, sms.ac, ringo.com, myspace.com, etc.” So how MUCH does it cost to buy software to trick all of your users into giving you the keys to their address books at their ISP? For a mere $50.00, you too can abuse your users’ trust to get their contacts from their address books at Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN and Gmail (yes all four!), and they’ll throw in AOL and their Outlook contacts for just $20.00 more. Of course, in the end, it’s the users’ job to be diligent, and not fall for these predatory email address book scraping practices, but the sites that use this software make it look so real, so much like you are just logging in to your ISP as you normally do, that you just don’t even realize - or think about - what you’re doing. And that’s what they are banking on - and nobody more than Sigma Visual Technologies. |
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| 2240. |
Solve : Trojan from China the gift that keeps on giving? |
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Answer» HERE An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games - and its designers might have larger targets in mind. "It is a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence," said Brian Grayek, who heads product development at Computer Associates, a security vendor that analyzed the Trojan Horse. The virus, which Computer Associates calls Mocmex, recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors, as well as the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows. It downloads files from remote locations and hides files, which it names randomly, on any PC it infects, making itself very difficult to remove. It spreads by hiding itself on photo frames and any other portable storage device that happens to be plugged into an infected PC. The authors of the new Trojan Horse are well-funded professionals whose malware has "specific designs to capture something and not leave traces," Grayek said. "This would be a nuclear bomb" of malware. By studying how the code is constructed and how it's propagated, Computer Associates has traced the Trojan to a specific group in China, Grayek said. He would not name the group. The strength of the malware shows how skilled hackers have become and how serious they are about targeting digital devices, which provide a new frontier for stealing information from VAST numbers of unwary PC owners. More than 2.26 million digital frames were sold in 2007, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, and it expects sales to grow to 3.26 million in 2008. The new Trojan also has been spotted in Singapore and the Russian Federation and has 67,500 variants, according to Prevx, a security vendor headquartered in England. Grayek said Mocmex might be a test for some bigger attack, because it's designed to capture any personal, private or financial information, yet so far it's only stealing passwords for online games. "If I send you a package but it doesn't explode, why did I send it?" he said. "Maybe I want to see if I can get it out to you and how you open it." The initial reports of infected frames came from people who had bought them over the holidays from Sam's Club and Best Buy. New reports involve frames sold at Target and Costco, according to SANS, a group of security researchers in Bethesda, Md., who began asking for accounts of infected devices on Christmas Day. So far the group has collected more than a dozen complaints from people across the country. The new Trojan isn't the only piece of malware involved. Deborah Hale of Sans said the researchers also found four other, older Trojans on each frame, which may serve as markers for botnets - networks of infected PCs that are remotely controlled by hackers. There is W32.Rajump, which deposits the same piece of malware that infected some of Apple's video iPods during manufacturing in October 2006. It gathers Internet Protocol addresses and port numbers from infected PCs and ships them out, according to Symantec. One destination is registered to a service in China that allows people to conceal their own IP addresses. Then there is a generic Trojan; a Trojan that opens a back door on PCs and displays pop-up ads; and a Trojan that spreads itself through portable devices like Mocmex does. How all this malware got onto the photo frames and what it's doing there is unclear. Trojans can download other Trojans, which is part of how botnets are controlled. While SANS is investigating the infections, the retailers are saying little. Sam's Club said it has found no infected frames, and its distributor, Advanced Design Systems, did not return calls seeking comment. A few Target customers complained about frames distributed by Uniek, a store spokesman confirmed. Target is no LONGER selling those frames, but that's because the frames didn't sell well over the holidays, he said. Target has found no infections, he said, but is watching for them. Best Buy said one line of its Insignia frames - also now discontinued - was infected during manufacturing but would not provide details. Costco did not return calls seeking comment. How to avoid problems Protecting against these new computer viruses, which so far are aimed at PCs running Windows, is hard - and sometimes impossible. Updated antivirus software works unless the malware writers get ahead of the antivirus vendors, which is what happened with the new Trojan. Computer Associates, for example, just began protecting against it last week. While some advise disabling Autorun in Windows, which allows devices to run automatically when they're plugged into a USB port, it's not a failsafe. Doing so requires some computer expertise, and this Trojan re-enables Autorun if it's turned off, according to Brian Grayek of Computer Associates. "If you plug in (the frame), you're already infected," he said. Deborah Hale at SANS suggested that PC users find friends with Macintosh or Linux machines and have them check for malware before plugging any device into a PC. She also recommended backing up data with an online service such as Mozy.com that offers free backup for home users with less than 2 gigabytes of data. But it does not back up the operating system, she warned. If you're attacked and your PC fails, you'll have to reformat and reload all of the programs. If you think bought an infected device, e-mail SANS at [emailprotected] and call your retailer. -- Best Buy: (877) 467-4289 -- Sam's Club: (888) 746-7726 -- Target: (800) 591-3869 -- Costco: (800) 955-2292 /Rant on I never trust security "experts" who uses fear and misinformation in order to bring their message across. Quote "This would be a nuclear bomb" of malwareHere is a first rate example of how to scare people who have little or no computer insight. Neither metaphorically nor literally will malware EVER be a nuclear bomb. It is a piece of software than can be removed just like any other software. It will not kill people and it will not cause an increase in cancer and birth defects. Ergo, it is not a nuclear bomb! Quote It downloads files from remote locations and hides files, which it names randomly, on any PC it infects, making itself very difficult to remove.Any half-decent piece of malware do that! That's why AV scanners are necessary for pete's sake. If viruses just installed a file called virus.exe in the root directory anyone could remove it. Quote Grayek said Mocmex might be a test for some bigger attack, because it's designed to capture any personal, private or financial information, yet so far it's only stealing passwords for online games.Wow a trojan that steals private information... how new. Quote Updated antivirus software works unless the malware writers get ahead of the antivirus vendors, which is what happened with the new Trojan. Computer Associates, for example, just began protecting against it last week.Gasp! MUST... Buy... CA products... before.... it's... too... late... Because apparently my computer and all my USB devices will explode in a hail of radioactive debris if I don't. Quote While some advise disabling Autorun in Windows, which allows devices to run automatically when they're plugged into a USB port, it's not a failsafe. Doing so requires some computer expertise, and this Trojan re-enables Autorun if it's turned off, according to Brian Grayek of Computer Associates. "If you plug in (the frame), you're already infected," he said.BS! If you disabled autorun to begin with, how exactly is a trojan on a usb device going to re-enable it? /Rant off Sorry to rant all over the article you linked to Broni, I know you posted it with the best intentions. I just hate this type of article that cloud the computer security issue in fear. Malware is something that needs to be acknowledge and taken precautions against, not something to be feared. Additionally Mocmex/WORM_AGENT.TBH/W32/Autorun.worm.e doesn't appear to be all that innovative. From what I read it spreads via autorun.inf which is hardly a new trick. It tries to end processes with Virus, Trojan, Process (and a few more) in the window title. Not particularly advanced, any AV program that protects it processes should be fine. It doesn't even utilize a rootkit to hide it self, it just hides its files and prevent explorer from showing HIDDEN files. Quote Sorry to rant all over the article you linked to Broni, I know you posted it with the best intentionsNot a problem. Ranting about posts like this one is very welcome Unfortunately CA has gone from being a valuable resource to The Boy Who Cried Wolf... Sad. |
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| 2241. |
Solve : A Second Shot: Windows Vista SP1? |
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Answer» HERE It’s hard to say the last year has been anything but rough for Microsoft’s Windows division. Although we found Windows Vista favorable upon its launch last year after watching it go through an usually drawn-out development process, such a sentiment hasn’t been shared by Windows users as a whole. Windows XP proved to be every bit the competition for Vista that Microsoft could ever fear it would be, at the time as when Vista was having its own post-launch pains. It was a bad combination, making for a bad year for Microsoft’s efforts in pushing its first new desktop OS in 5 years. Microsoft was looking to make a solid case for why Vista is a worthwhile successor to XP in a market notorious for a resistance to change, and they failed to do this thanks to a failure in immature technology and an inability to get a consistent and convincing message out. In the year since then you could make the argument that Microsoft’s marketing efforts still haven’t improved, but you would be hard pressed to make the same argument about Vista itself. Since its release an unfortunately large number of bugs and quirks have been discovered in Vista, which has kept Microsoft BUSY patching them over the year, while to their chagrin many consumers sit on the side watching. To Microsoft’s credit they’ve done a lot with Vista well before the first service pack, various patches including the reliability & compatibility packs released over the last year have solved many of the earliest complaints about Vista; it already performs better and is less QUIRKY across the board now than when it launched. But it goes WITHOUT saying that this hasn’t been enough to SOLVE all of Vista’s problems, putting a lot of watchful eyes on Service Pack 1. There is a saying among software development circles that businesses as a whole won’t touch a Microsoft product until the first service pack; they would prefer to wait until a product has been widely used and the biggest problems identified & solved. It’s cold but effective logic that also puts a great deal of pressure on Microsoft. No matter how good (or bad) a product is, half of their customers won’t bat an eye until there’s a service pack, making the first such pack just as important as the product launch itself in some ways. Complicating matters further with the Vista launch in particular is that Microsoft has tied Windows Server 2008 to the Vista kernel; getting Windows Server 2008 out the door means any and all Vista problems that would hinder server operation need to be eliminated. The result is that Service Pack 1 is a big deal for Microsoft, they need to show consumers that they can fix what still ails the OS, they need to show businesses that it’s now ready for them to use, and they need to show server administrators that the core technology is so good that a reliable server can be built off of it. Furthermore, with the progression of technology in the last year the timing couldn’t be any more critical. The 4GB address space barrier for 32bit x86 is finally beginning to rear its head with more average computer uses; RAM PRICES have nosedived with 8GB of RAM going for as little as $160, resulting in a wide and very real need for a 64-bit operating system (and XP64 being a poor fit for consumers). Meanwhile PC OEMs are finally warming up to the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and are ready to start building systems with it, meaning they too must move beyond XP. Even governments are finding they need to move to Vista as of late, as new encryption standards come in to play which only Vista supports. The result of this is that many different groups have been watching SP1 far more intently than past service packs. With the final version of SP1 in hand, today we’ll be looking at what Microsoft is bringing to the table with Vista’s first service pack. With a combination of new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements, there’s a great deal to this service pack that we’ll be covering so let’s get started. More, at the above link... |
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| 2242. |
Solve : Leaked Screenshots Reveal Windows 7 is Vista Refined? |
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Answer» HERE The successor to Windows Vista, tentatively named Windows 7, isn't due until 2009, or possibly even 2010, but development is well underway and screenshots of the early milestones are ALREADY leaking onto the web. The latest review is from the Russian site *Blocked Russian URL* and boasts an thorough screenshot gallery of Windows 7 in action. Although the review itself is in Russian, parsing it through Google Translate yields a few notable items in these early builds of Windows 7. The first thing you’re likely to notice is that Windows 7 looks very much like Windows Vista, suggesting an incremental evolution rather than the radical design changes we saw moving from XP to Vista. Among the notable new features is a new option in the initial Windows setup screen that allows you to create a “HomeGroup.” A HomeGroup appears to somewhat similar to the WorkGroup concept that’s been in Windows for a while, but in this case you’re designating other machines to enable photo sharing, music sharing and more. Another welcome new feature is the ability to pin items to the Windows Start menu using either drag-and-drop or with a new “pin” icon that will move them from the recent items SECTION to a permanent home at the top of the start menu. There’s also a new Windows Recovery Center which you can use to rollback the system without LOSING any of your data. The reviewer admits that s/he hasn’t tested the feature, but if it works as advertised it would offer an easy way to recover a damaged system without having to reinstall from a disk. It also includes as option to recover from a backup disk. Obviously with Windows 7 still years away from official release there’s no telling what will other changes will be unveiled before it lands on your desktop, but these early builds suggest that Microsoft is working hard to smooth some of Vista’s rough edges. [Update: As a number of commenters have pointed out, it's possible these are fake. However, I'm inclined to believe them SINCE the match with some other leaks from other sources. Of course you're free to disagree and definitely take them with a grain of salt, that's why this post is filed in the “rumors” category] Links to more screenshots at the above site.Do you really think windows 7 will have a 32 bit option? I doubt it. last I heard, vista was supposed to be the last microsoft os built for 32 bit. screenshots are probably fake I have no IDEA. I'm just messenger. Maybe all those screenshots are fake after all, as the author warns.They do look far too similar to Vista, IMHO, to be a new OS. I also think that MS will release a 32 bit version, mainly because the current 64 but options have a very limited userbase. Personally I think the hardware manufacturers need to get themselves in gear and churn out some more 64 bit drivers, and software developers need to get working on (working) 64 bit builds of their programs. According to Wikipedia, it took 8 years for MS to go from 16 bit to 32 bit (Windows 1.0, 1985, to Widnows NT, 1993), and it's now taken them 12 years to release a mainstream (as opposed to Itanium) 64 bit OS in the form of Windows XP Pro X64. Previous releases have replaced older ones, i.e. 16 bit was replaced entirely in time. Why keep dragging on 32 bit compatibility? 32 bit CPUs are no longer sold, and most 32 bit processors (as they're older) will not actually be fast enough to give a good experience with the latest operating systems, if the system requirements continue to gallop along as they are doing right now.There are also some videos on youtube, but who knows... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1UnGOJnq9A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YwCev1p1U4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSPV_HLwITk |
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| 2243. |
Solve : 1988 vs. 2008: A Tech Retrospective? |
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Answer» Think the iPhone is pricey? The cool cell phone of 1988 cost $4,382 in today's dollars. A 150MB hard drive? $8,755. Take a trip with US down memory LANE and you'll never whine about the PRICE of a gadget again. Hey, want to buy a 1-terabyte hard drive for $5.8 million? We thought not. But based on per-megabyte prices in 1988, that's how much a 1TB drive would have cost in 2008 dollars. |
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| 2244. |
Solve : AT&T to Provide FREE Wifi at Starbucks? |
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Answer» Tmobile Suffers Huge Loss as Starbucks Switches to AT&T Wi-Fi HERE If you are among the legion of annoyed laptop toters who felt that the price to use Tmobile wifi at Starbucks was outrageous - particularly when there are so many coffee shops offering free wifi (and BETTER coffee) these days - well, apparently Starbucks agrees with you. Because Starbucks and AT&T have just announced that Starbucks has jumped ship from Tmobile, and is now going to be offering AT&T wifi in its 7000 locations. This is not only a boon for Starbucks and AT&T, but also for Starbucks customers who want to avail themselves of wifi while sipping their Uber Grande Triple Half-Caff No Sugar Sludgeacinos. Rather than paying T-mobile’s exorbitant rates ($6.00 hour, $10.00 per day, or $40.00 per month), Starbucks customers WISHING to use the AT&T wifi will pay only $3.99 for 2 hours, or $19.99 for a month. Better yet, if you have a Starbucks card - their credit-card sized plastic cards that you can pre-load with money - and if you load it with at least $5.00, and use it just once a month (i.e. at least once a month), the AT&T wifi access is free. Now that’s a heck of a DEAL! Said Chris Bruzzo, CTO of Starbucks, “This is what our customers have been waiting for - free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi. Through our new partnership with AT&T, we also welcome their millions of current customers who can now come in and ENJOY free Wi-Fi as part of their daily Starbucks Experience.” Bruzzo is referring to the fact that existing AT&T DSL, Fiber, and Business Remote Access customers will be able to use the AT&T wifi at Starbucks at no additional charge, as part of their package. “People want to stay connected to their world 24/7, and Wi-Fi hot spots, broadband and wireless make that mobility possiblem,” explained Rick Welday, AT&T’s Consumer Division CMO. “Laptops and smartphones give us the online mobility we crave, and now millions of AT&T and Starbucks customers will get Internet access free from the comfort of their neighborhood Starbucks.” The switch to AT&T at Starbucks locations will take place on a market-by-market basis, beginning this spring. |
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| 2245. |
Solve : Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail? |
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Answer» GOOGLE has made an announcement that could help HUNDREDS of HOMELESS people in San Francisco GET back on their feet. Every single homeless person in the city will be given a life-long phone number and voicemail, should they CHOOSE to accept it, NBC11's Lisa Bernard said. LinkWhat ......no Health Care ? ? ? |
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| 2246. |
Solve : Microsoft yanks Vista SP1 update causing endless reboots? |
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Answer» Quote RESPONDING to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs that flooded support newsgroups last week, Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it had pulled an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service Pack 1. Full Story Here |
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| 2247. |
Solve : Automated killer robots 'threat to humanity': expert? |
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Answer» Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots DEVELOPED for warfare COULD easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a TOP EXPERT on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute. LinkSkynet. |
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| 2248. |
Solve : Hackers Rig Google to Deliver Malware? |
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Answer» HERE If last November you googled one of thousands of INNOCUOUS and common search terms, such as "Microsoft excel to access" or "how to teach your dogs to fetch," you were in line for an Internet attack that infects PCs with spam senders, password stealers, and other kinds of nasty malware. Beginning on November 24 and continuing for less than a week, bad guys loaded up more than 40,000 Web pages with malicious software and thousands of common search terms. They then employed an automated network of malware-infected computers--known as a botnet--to link to those sites in blog-comment spam and other places. The mentions elevated the position of the poisoned sites in search results, often to the first page. Click Here for Free Attack The malicious sites had no useful information. Instead, a simple click on a link to such a site in the search results was enough to LAUNCH attacks against your PC. If the attack found any of a number of vulnerabilities in a range of programs, it would load. "This was a massive wave," says Alex Eckelberry, president and CEO of security firm Sunbelt Software. The attack marks a new level of sophistication, using multiple techniques to raise site visibility in search results and deliver malware to a MASS audience. Sunbelt researcher Adam Thomas happened upon the attack when he ran a search of "netgear ProSafe DD-WRT" for router firmware. His trained eye saw a suspicious-looking result on the first page. More research and digging on other phrases turned up the vast array of attack sites. None of the sites from this wave, or a smaller follow-up GROUP, appear now on Google, and Eckelberry and other experts believe the search giant has BLOCKED those specific domains. But Google isn't saying what it did to stop this attack, or whether measures are in place to halt a recurrence. Pretty interesting story. I think it would be extremely difficult for Google to block and/or completely prevent this type of attack. |
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| 2249. |
Solve : JotSpot reincarnated as Google Sites? |
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Answer» In October 2006, Google acquired JotSpot, a hosted wiki platform for building COLLABORATIVE Web sites. SIXTEEN MONTHS later, which is like 10 years in Web time, Google is launching a revamped JotSpot as Google Sites. Link YouTube VIDEO demonstrating it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KnC2EIS5w |
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| 2250. |
Solve : HD DVD dead? |
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Answer» I was actually hoping HD DVD would win the HD disc wars, but HONESTLY never bought HD DVD or blu-ray players because I didn't want to be stuck with an expensive player that was extinct. |
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