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Windows XP and technology news June 26 2004 till April 24 2004
Web site virus attack blunted
June 26 2004-Web surfers are no longer playing Russian roulette each time they visit a Web site, security researchers say, now that a far-reaching Internet attack has been disarmed.
The attack, which had turned some Web sites into points of digital infection, was nipped in the bud Friday, when Internet engineers managed to shut down a Russian server that had been the source of malicious code. Compromised Web sites are still attempting to infect Web surfers' PCs by referring them to the server in Russia, but that computer can no longer be reached.
Still, Web surfers should take precautions, as the Internet underground is increasingly using this type of attack as a way to get by network defenses and infect officer workers' and home users' computers.
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Researchers warn of infectious Web sites
June 24 2004-Security researchers warned Web surfers on Thursday to be on guard after uncovering evidence that widespread Web server compromises have turned corporate home pages into points of digital infection.
The researchers believe that online organized crime groups are breaking into Web servers and surreptitiously inserting code that takes advantage of two flaws in Internet Explorer that Microsoft has not yet fixed. Those flaws allow the Web server to install a program that takes control of the user's computer.
Intruders are using compromised Web sites to infect visitors' PCs though two Internet Explorer flaws.
This method of attack is increasingly being used by the Internet underground. While it's unknown how many Web sites carry the malicious program, Windows users should turn their IE security to the highest setting or install a third-party browser.
Late Thursday, Microsoft advised customers to increase their browser security to the highest settings, although that could cause some Web site functions to stop working.
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Microsoft confirms supercomputing plans
June 23 2004-Microsoft will sell a version of Windows for high-performance computing--a niche in which rival Linux is blossoming--with a first version planned for the second half of 2005.
As first reported by CNET News.com, the Windows Server 2003 HPC Edition will include features for running windows on clusters of machines interconnected by a high-speed network to form a single computing resource, Microsoft said in a statement Wednesday.
In the statement, Microsoft said it has enlisted support for the new version from several major companies, including IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. Other partners include Verari Systems, one of whose specialties is cluster computing, and the Cornell Theory Center, which has explored Windows for supercomputing for years.
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Cheaper Pentium Ms arrive
June 23 2004-Intel on Wednesday delivered a pair of lower-price Pentium M chips as part of its latest line of notebook processors.
The chipmaker added the Pentium M 715 and the Pentium M 725, which run at 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz, respectively, to its recently introduced Pentium M 700 series of notebook chips. The 715 and 725 follow the launch last month of Intel's Pentium M 735, 745 and 755, which run at speeds of 1.7GHz to 2GHz.
The 700 series Pentium Ms are made with new underpinnings: a 90-nanometer processor design dubbed Dothan, which Intel has said offers a performance boost over its preceding Pentium M design, dubbed Banias. Like the other 700-series chips, the new 715 and 725 will also be offered as part of Intel's Centrino chip bundle for wireless notebooks.
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Windows XP SP2 RC2 Rolls Out
June 16 2004-As we pointed out in January (Preview: Inside the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta), Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 will enhance the operating system's security and usability. When Release Candidate 1 (RC1) appeared in March, it provided fully realized implementations of many features that were just promises in the beta. Release Candidate 2, available as of Tuesday, further refines the new features. Its appearance encourages us to believe that SP2 may indeed ship to the public by the end of summer.
Anyone wanting an early look at the current release candidate can download it from www.microsoft.com/sp2preview. The full download is over 270MB, but those updating just a single machine can do so using a new version of Windows Update, for a mere 100MB download. Note that Microsoft does not support the preview and does not recommend its use on production systems.
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Netscape takes aim at pop-ups, spam
June 14 2004-Netscape Communications on Monday announced products designed to help customers of its Internet service block pop-ups and spam, as well as scan e-mail for viruses.
Additionally, the technology allows customers to surf the Internet at speeds of up to five times faster than they could over a standard dial-up connection, according to Netscape, which is a division of Time Warner's America Online unit.
The product, called Web Accelerator with Pop-Up Blocker, is an add-on that can be used with the basic Netscape dial-up service.
The service's pop-up-blocking technology is designed to stop most of the "annoying and time-consuming pop-ups and pop-unders that interrupt normal Web surfing," the company said.
Similarly, with the company's spam-blocking tool, customers can block e-mails based on specific words, Netscape said. Subscribers can also block e-mails that contain clickable URLs.
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Where, Oh Where Is Windows XP SP2?
June 11 2004-May has come and gone without Microsoft releasing a promised second release-candidate beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Microsoft said earlier this year to expect Release Candidate 2 (RC2) of XP SP2 in May. Repeatedly, during the past two weeks, Microsoft officials have said RC2 would ship "sometime in the next few weeks."
But as June 15 closes in, Microsoft still isn't offering any new word on XP SP2's whereabouts.
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Microsoft file patent faces exam
June 11 2004-A U.S. government agency agreed this week to re-examine a controversial Microsoft patent on the Windows file format, following an objection from a public-interest group.
In April, the Public Patent Foundation asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to revoke a patent that covers the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system--the older of two main systems used by Windows to store files. Last year, Microsoft said it was seeking to license the FAT patent on reasonable terms as part of a broader push toward sharing its intellectual-property portfolio with the industry.
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Windows XP update to fight malicious software
May 31 2004-Redmond software company Microsoft Corp. plans to release an update to its Windows XP operating system that will contain new technology aimed at stopping viruses and other forms of malicious software.
But the biggest change is only marginally technical. It's the default setting for the firewall. With Windows XP2, the firewall will turn on unless the computer user knowingly turns it off. In the original version, users had to turn it on themselves.
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Verizon to offer naked DSL
May 26 2004-Verizon Communications will soon become the second Baby Bell in the United States to offer broadband to consumers regardless of whether those customers also buy its local phone service.
The company confirmed on Wednesday that it plans to offer what's been called "naked" digital subscriber line (DSL) service to customers within its local phone region by the end of 2004. Qwest Communications in February announced plans to offer a similar service to its customers.
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Microsoft creating Windows for supercomputers
May 25 2004-Microsoft has launched an effort to produce a version of Windows for high-performance computing, a move seen as a direct attack on a Linux stronghold.
High-performance computing once required massive, expensive, exotic machines from companies such as Cray, but the field is being remade by the arrival of clusters of low-end machines. While the trend could be considered an opportunity for Microsoft, which has long been the leading operating-system company, Linux has actually become the favored software used on these clusters.
Now Microsoft has begun its response, forming its High Performance Computing team and planning a new OS version called Windows Server HPC Edition. Kyril Faenov is director of the effort, and Microsoft is hiring new managers, programmers, testers and others.
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Cisco bets on new high-end router
May 24 2004-Cisco Systems on Tuesday is expected to launch a new high-end router for large telecommunications carriers, in a major bid to outmatch rivals in a key market.
The product, code-named HFR (for huge fast router), will be unveiled at an event marking Cisco's 20-year anniversary, when it will be christened the Carrier Routing System-1, or CRS-1, a source close to the company said.
The new router is designed for carrier networks that handle the highest volumes of Internet traffic. It is the first product engineered by Cisco that will allow several boxes to be clustered together to function as a single router--a feature that is defining the next generation of these products.
Cisco has been working on the CRS-1 for the past four years, but it has kept quiet about details, even denying the product's existence. Cisco declined to comment for this article.
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Dreams of Longhorn
May 23 2004-The desktop version of Longhorn, Microsoft's next release of Windows, may receive most of the ink. But it is the server version that is more vital to the software giant's long-run ambitions. That's because some of the most heavily touted features of Longhorn--such as mainframe-caliber computing, better security and management and networkwide search--rely on Longhorn Server.
Muglia, a 16-year veteran of Microsoft, is tasked with building Longhorn Server, likely the most complex operating system ever designed. What's more, Muglia must keep a long train of updates and service packs for older versions of Windows rolling off the production line.
Even though Longhorn Server likely won't make a debut until 2007, it's already generated controversy. Microsoft had barely acknowledged the product's existence when the company admitted that one of the software's most anticipated features, wide-scale search of corporate networks, won't make it into the first release.
Microsoft will also need to convince big companies that Longhorn's more advanced features are worth the trouble. And while Microsoft will spend the next three years building Longhorn, Linux continues to gain in popularity. Muglia sat down with CNET News.com to talk about Longhorn, the evolving Linux threat and how Microsoft builds Windows.
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Google's desktop bet
May 22 2004-Google faces a difficult task if it tries to transplant its successful Web search business to the desktop.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is reportedly preparing to release downloadable software that enables people to search for text and files stored on their computer's hard drive. The move would dramatically expand Google's search business beyond the Web while taking direct aim at Microsoft, which is itself getting ready to take on Google's dominance in Web search with its own technology.
"It's clearly a pre-emptive move," said Richard DeSilva, a senior associate partner at venture firm Highland Capital.
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Cisco to patent security fix
May 19 2004-Cisco Systems has applied for patents on technology that it claims will fix a flaw that has recently been found in one of the most common communications protocols.
Last month, Robert Barr, an in-house patent attorney for the company, publicly acknowledged that Cisco has applied for U.S. patents on fixes to a protocol called TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol. A flaw in this protocol, which is used for sending data over the Internet, was discovered last month by security expert Paul Watson, a security specialist for industry automation company Rockwell Automation. Watson's discovery resulted in a worldwide security warning that affected many vendors' products.
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A proposal to help fight deceptive Internet software
May 19 2004-At Google, we put a lot of thought into improving your online experience. We're alarmed by what we believe is a growing disregard for your rights as computer users. We've seen increasing reports of spyware and other applications that trick you in order to serve you pop-up ads, connect your modem to expensive toll numbers or hijack your browser from the site you're trying to visit.
We do not see this trend reversing itself. In fact, it is getting worse. As a provider of services and monetization for users, advertisers and publishers on the Internet, we feel a responsibility to be proactive about these issues. So, we have decided to take action. As a first step, we have outlined a set of principles we believe our industry should adopt and we're sharing them to foster discussion and help solve the problem. We intend to follow these guidelines ourselves with the applications we distribute (such as the Google Toolbar and Google Deskbar). And because we strongly believe these principles are good for the industry and users worldwide, we will encourage our current and prospective business partners to adopt them as well.
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German teenager confesses to creating Sasser Internet worm
May 08 2004-An 18-year-old German man faces up to five years in prison after he confessed to creating the Internet Sasser worm which infected millions of computers worldwide, police said.
The teenager, whom police have not identified by name, was arrested Friday after a raid on his parents' house in Rotenburg, a small town in the northern state of Lower Saxony, which turned up incriminating evidence.
Investigators seized several items from the house, including the teen's personal computer.
Investigators said they got a crucial tip-off from Microsoft, the world's biggest software firm. A spokesman for the company in Germany said it had "received a call from people who had information on him and knew his identity."
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Microsoft, Reward-Seekers Help Nab Sasser Creator
May 08 2004-A tip from reward-seekers and information from Microsoft led to the arrest of an 18-year-old suspected of creating the "Sasser" computer worm, German police and the software giant said on Saturday.
Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said police were certain they had the man behind one of the Internet's most costly outbreaks of sabotage.
"We are absolutely certain that this really is the creator of the Internet worm because Microsoft experts were involved in the inquiry and confirmed our suspicions and because the suspect admitted to it," he said in an interview with Reuters Television.
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Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE
May 04 2004-This week, I tell you why some Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS) images aren't displayed on the RIS OS selection menu and how to solve the problem, how to add a new adapter to the list of supported RIS adapters, and how to avoid having to press F12 during a RIS boot. I also explain how to avoid receiving an 0x2015 error when you use Ntdsutil to delete a nonexistent domain and how to create an Active Directory Service (ADS) set.
Great questions and answers from John Savil, at Windows & .Net Magazine.
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Microsoft Sells 210 Million Copies of Windows XP
May 04 2004-The day before opening its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2004 trade show in Seattle, Microsoft announced that it has sold 210 million copies of Windows XP, most of which were bundled with new PCs. However, Microsoft also noted that actual XP usage is far higher than that figure, because its sales figures don't include copies of XP bundled with new machines under corporate licenses.
The last time Microsoft released sales figures for XP was July 2003, when the company announced that it had sold 130 million copies of the operating system. Microsoft notes that it is selling approximately 10 million copies of Windows XP every month now, and sales are actually accelerating month-over-month; last July, the company was averaging 6 million copies of XP each month.
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Windows XP Service Pack 2 Delayed
April 28 2004-Microsoft now says the update won't ship before July. Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, originally planned to ship in the first half of the year, will now be released in July at the earliest. The major, security-focused operating system update doesn't yet meet Microsoft's standards, a company spokesperson says.
Microsoft as recently as last week said Service Pack 2 for Windows XP was on schedule for release in the first half of the year. The company has now decided to delay the update to "some time in the third quarter" because testing has not been completed and Microsoft continues to make changes to the software based on input from testers, the spokesperson says.
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NVIDIA Issues Beta Drivers for 64-bit Windows XP
April 24 2004-The industry is inching one step closer to the broad adoption of 64-bit computing. Computer graphics giant NVIDIA is delivering 64-bit beta drivers for motherboards and systems based upon its nForce3 media and communications processors (MCPs). The drivers are designed for Microsoft's Windows XP 64-bit Edition for Extended Systems operating system, also currently in beta.
"Systems based on NVIDIA nForce3 MCPs and the AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron processors provide a compatible, stable, and reliable computing platform for users who wish to exploit the benefits of both 32-bit and 64-bit computing environments," said Dwight Diercks, vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA.
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Microsoft Preps Next Release Candidate For Windows XP Service Pack 2
April 20 2004-Microsoft plans to make available Release Candidate 2 of Windows XP Service Pack 1 in May in preparation for final availability during the first half of 2004, company executives said during a briefing on Tuesday.
During the company's April security briefing, Rebecca Norlander, Group Manager of Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit, gave a demonstration of the much-anticipated service pack and said the company is considering adding spyware capabilities to a future version of Windows and/or service pack.
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Windows Update Servers Slowed By Rush To Patch
April 19 2004-Microsoft's April security problems didn't stop when it rolled out four alerts and disclosed 20 vulnerabilities on Tuesday. That day, and the day after, Microsoft's update servers were plagued by slow downs that prevented some users from obtaining the necessary patches.
The U.K.-based Web performance monitoring firm Netcraft on Wednesday noted that Microsoft's Windows Update site -- the primary means for users to download security patches -- experienced "slow response times" in the wake of the release of the numerous critical updates.
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Readers Criticize Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
April 16 2004-Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 is pretty unpopular among Security Pipeline readers, but critics were almost evenly split whether SP2 makes security too tight, or not tight enough.
We asked: "The upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 has very stringent security measures. According to pre-release versions now available, the software is set to, by default, automatically download and install patches without user intervention. A built-in firewall comes with the software, and it's switched on by default. And a new Windows Security Center allows novice users to increase security on their systems, but makes it difficult to reduce security settings. Some or all of this is likely to change by the time the software is released, but based on what we know now, is SP2 too secure?"
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Microsoft reins in Longhorn for 2006 launch
April 11 2004-Microsoft said on Friday that it is aiming to release Longhorn in the first half of 2006--a move that will require the company to scale back some of its more ambitious plans for the next version of Windows.
The company said Longhorn will still include three major advances: a new file system known as WinFS, a new graphics engine dubbed Avalon and a Web Services architecture known as Indigo.
"There may be specific features within those subsystems that will be scaled back," lead product manager Greg Sullivan said. Sullivan would not identify which features have been trimmed but said such efforts are typical of all new releases of the Windows operating system.
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Hack Your XP Start Button
April 08 2004-Change the text and icon on your Start button by following these simple steps. Sarah from Tech TV shares some great hacks you can do to your start button, change the start text, change your hover text, customize your start icon. Great stuff. Before you get started, you might want to print out this page for easy reference.
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Windows XP SP 2 Delivers Some Promised Security Ehancements
April 03 2004-The highly anticipated release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 looms on the horizon, leaving many to wonder if operating system update will be a cure for many of the security ills surrounding Windows XP. Months in the making, Microsoft promises the new service pack--set to ship by the end of the second quarter--promises to better secure Windows XP from attacks, such as the Blaster worm and buffer overruns, while also reducing pop-up advertisements and spam annoyances.
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Windows XP security gets tighter
Mar 31 2004-XP is getting a security makeover. Microsoft is preparing an update to Windows XP that is intended to make the operating system more secure. Dubbed Service Pack 2 (SP2) the update will close some loopholes that virus writers and malicious hackers have exploited to infect or take over PCs. The add-on for XP will also include extras that block pop-up ads by default and give users a clearer picture of how secure their system is.
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Microsoft: No Longhorn Until 2006...at the Earliest
Mar 27 2004-In an interview with "Computerworld," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia revealed that the next major version of Windows (code-named Longhorn) won't ship until 2006 at the earliest, confirming the opinions of analysts and others familiar with the company's problem of shipping products on schedule. "2006 is the earliest time frame we're looking at [for Longhorn]," Muglia said, suggesting that perhaps 2007 is a more accurate date. "[The client and server versions of Longhorn] will ship at different times. Clients need slightly less bake time than servers do." He also presented an interesting summary of the features Microsoft plans for Longhorn. "There are three major pillars for Longhorn. One is the new user interface pieces in the Avalon UI, the graphical UI. Another is WinFS. And the third is the Web services infrastructure in Indigo."
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Microsoft Rolls Out Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition
Mar 27 2004-In what can only be described as the company's most low-profile OS rollout since Windows Me, Microsoft released Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition this week, not that anyone running a Pocket PC today will be able to get the OS anytime soon. Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (or WM2K3SE, as I affectionately call it) adds several key features to compatible Pocket PC devices, including support for VGA (640 x 480) screens and landscape-display mode. But in what is becoming an increasingly frustrating and familiar strategy, Microsoft isn't shipping the OS to customers directly but is letting its hardware partners do so--with an associated fee. So we'll likely wait months for companies such as HP and Toshiba to release the update, and many customers will be disappointed to eventually discover that their particular devices won't be updated at all. Adding insult to injury, representatives of Dell, HP, and Toshiba were flashing users' devices to the new OS at the Microsoft Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon) 2004 in San Francisco this week at no charge, including mobile devices that...ahem...won't be officially upgradeable. Shame.
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Microsoft Admits It Missed Internet Search Opportunity
Mar 27 2004-Let me get something straight: First, Microsoft missed out on the whole Internet boon by shipping a lackluster, proprietary online service then called The Microsoft Network just as the Internet was starting to take off. Now, the company is admitting that it blew it big time again by missing out on providing a world-class Internet search service, letting an unknown company called Google take off. "People say that Microsoft does it all, but this is the case where we didn't do it all," CEO Steve Ballmer said, describing the company's missteps with Internet search as its "biggest mistake." Ahem. This kind of talk reminds me of Microsoft's use of the term "bet the company," which it carts out at virtually every product launch. I guess this scenario is "bet the company's" antithesis.
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EU Announces Final Microsoft Decision: "Near Monopoly;" Record Fine, New Windows Version Required
Mar 24 2004-The European Union (EU) announced today that Microsoft is guilty of abusing its "near monopoly" in desktop and server OSs and fined the company a record $613 million. Additionally, the EU gave Microsoft 90 days to offer European computer makers a new Windows version that doesn't include Windows Media Player (WMP) and 120 days to give competitors the vital information they require to write software applications that work more closely with Windows Server products. The EU's restrictions and requirements are limited to the European market only "in deference to the competition authorities of the United States and other countries," according to EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. Microsoft says its proposed settlement, which the EU shot down last week, would have been better for consumers. The company vows to appeal this decision to an EU court in Luxembourg.
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Best Practices Analyzer
Mar 21 2004-If you're a new SQL Server administrator or a part-time DBA who isn't familiar with SQL Server, you'll find Microsoft's new administration tool, the SQL Server 2000 Best Practices Analyzer, invaluable. The product is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b352eb1f-d3ca-44ee-893e-9e07339c1f22&displaylang=en. The Best Practices Analyzer uses a rule reference to check for implementation of common best practices, most relating to usage and administration. The rules include more than 70 best practices and guidelines that Microsoft provides for managing and operating your system. You can also define your own set of best-practices rules. Here are my seven favorite rules that the Best Practices Analyzer checks for.
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DVD-copying sales ban reinstated
Mar 15 2004-A New York federal judge on Monday reinstated a ban on sales of 321 Studios' DVD copying software. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen had previously decided the program violated federal copyright laws and told the company to stop selling it, but had temporarily put his own order on hold.
Owen's set of rulings have had little actual effect on the market, since a California judge's ruling barring sales of the DVD copying software remains in effect. 321 Studios is appealing both orders.
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10-Gigabit Ethernet comes alive
March 15 2004-The market for 10-gigabit-per-second Ethernet switching got off to a slow start, but now that corporate customers are looking for more speed on their networks, the technology seems to be hitting its stride.
Few applications currently require the full bandwidth provided by 10-Gigabit Ethernet. But demand is picking up amid sharp price cuts fuelled by new designs and higher-density products. In addition, a new standard to run 10-Gigabit Ethernet over copper cable could help reduce costs and spur adoption later this year.
"It's really remarkable how quickly the prices have fallen," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "And the falling prices have really helped spur adoption".
The arrival of 10-Gigabit Ethernet, also known as 10-GigE, highlights the growing business demand for bandwidth. In systems, it promises to leapfrog current technology in much the same way that 1-Gigabit Ethernet replaced the older Fast Ethernet. But 10-GigE's impact could be even more profound in the long run, as it offers a one-size-fits-all technology for IT applications from supercomputing to networked storage.
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Flaws level off, but worms still squirming
March 15 2004-The number of public alerts about software security flaws leveled off over the last six months, but worms continue to threaten the Internet, according to a report security company Symantec released Monday.
In 2003, information on 2,636 security vulnerabilities was released to the public, according to Symantec's biannual Internet Security Threat Report. That's an increase of only 2 percent from the 2,587 vulnerabilities disclosed by companies and security researchers in 2002, said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for Symantec. From 2001 to 2002, there was an 81 percent increase, Huger said.
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McDonald's Wi-Fi recipe could define industry
March 12 2004-Signs at a McDonald's in downtown San Francisco cordially beckon customers to surf the Web using its wireless Internet service, but no one is biting during a recent Wednesday lunch hour.
In fact, none of the 20-odd patrons scattered about the restaurant's two dining areas appears to have a laptop computer or wireless PDA on hand. A few peer over newspapers, while others talk quietly or stare out the window over trays of french fries and hamburgers.
The scene is typical, says supervisor Margie deGroot, whose restaurant near Market and Second streets became, last year, one of the first McDonald's in the country to offer wireless Net access to customers: "Why would these customers use this service when they can go back to their offices to use their computers?" she says.
She's not the only one asking the question. So-called Wi-Fi wireless broadband technology is catching on fast with computer users and sparking a new service industry that aims to cater to an increasingly mobile Internet audience. But it's still early in the game, and companies aren't sure what formula--if any--will work best to attract paying customers.
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50,000 new homes to get free PCs
March 12 2004-Wireless networking firm Abrocour is giving away 50,000 home entertainment PC systems in a bid to convert new homes to wireless.
The company claims that it will connect a third of all new UK homes built in 2004 using wireless broadband access.
It is giving away the Windows XP Media Center PCs with 32in flat screen displays to housing developers which install them in new homes.
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Windows XP SP2 could break existing applications
Mar 05 2004-When Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for Windows XP later this year, some software developers may find their applications no longer work on updated Windows machines.
Microsoft has made something of a trade-off with the update, focussing on security improvements at the expense of backward compatibility. The vendor is calling on all software developers to test their code against the beta version of Service Pack 2, or face the possibility that the update will break their handiwork.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is more than the usual roll-up of bug fixes and updates. It is also being used to make significant changes to the software that are designed to improve security. These changes can render applications inoperable, Microsoft warns.
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Windows XP Embedded powers cinema ticketing kiosks
Mar 02 2004-Cinema operators now have a modern, reliable way to provide convenient, fast ticketing to patrons before they enter the theater lobby, thanks to Radiant Systems's Outdoor Ticketing Kiosk. The environmentally hardened, wireless, self-service kiosk is designed to withstand direct exposure of the kiosk to sun, rain, and snow and can be used virtually anywhere -- including the gathering area outside a theater's lobby, as well as mall entrances and sidewalks leading from the parking lot.
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Windows XP Reloaded May Debut Before Longhorn
Feb 27 2004-Microsoft plans to release significant enhancements to Windows XP after Service Pack 2 and before Longhorn as part of a project known as Windows XP Reloaded.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant confirmed a published report that there is a Windows XP Reloaded project under way, but the company has not decided how the functionality will be packaged or priced--if at all.
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Gates Touts Windows XP Service Pack 2 At Security Show
Feb 24 2004-Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates Tuesday offered a sneak peek at the features of the upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2. In his keynote address on the first full day of the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Gates outlined upcoming features to Windows XP SP2, including a Windows Security Center that centralizes and manages security settings. "SP2 is a release that is totally focused on security," Gates said. "It is a major focus of the Windows team. We have prioritized our resources around security."
The Windows Security Center displays status and recommends guidelines with actions that need to be taken. All of the features are managed through Active Directory group policy, said Zach Gutt, a technical product manager who demonstrated the features ofWindows SP2. Other features include central firewall management and a pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer.
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Microsoft Internet Explorer Integer Overflow in Processing Bitmap Files Lets Remote Users Execute Arbitrary Code
Feb 17 2004-A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 5. A remote user can execute arbitrary code on the target system.
It is reported that a remote user can create a specially crafted bitmap file that, when loaded by IE, will trigger an integer overflow and execute arbitrary code.
The author states that this flaw was found by reviewing the recently leaked Microsoft Windows source code. The flaw reportedly resides in 'win2k/private/inet/mshtml/src/site/download/imgbmp.cxx'.
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Exploit code for Microsoft vulnerability circulating
Feb 16 2004-Security researchers say code designed to exploit a recently announced critical vulnerability in Microsoft operating systems now is widespread on the Internet.
The code crashes targeted computers by exploiting a flaw in Microsoft’s Abstract Syntax Notation 1 Library in Windows NT, 2000 and XP. The exploit code was discovered Saturday, four days after the vulnerability and a patch to correct it was announced by Microsoft.
The exploit we discovered is fully functional and does cause targeted computers to crash,” said Ken Dunham, director of malicious code for iDefense Inc. of Reston, Va. “The widespread distribution of this code has significantly increased the threat level for ASN.1.
The report indicates that IE 5 is affected but that IE 6 is not affected.
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Another Microsoft Server Vulnerability - Critical
Feb 10 2004-Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-007 - ASN.1 Vulnerability Could Allow Code Execution (828028)
Windows NT 4.0 (Workstation, Server, and Terminal Server Edition) does not install the affected file by default. This file is installed as part of the MS03-041 Windows NT 4.0 security update and other possible non-security-related hotfixes. If the Windows NT 4.0 security update for MS03-041 is not installed, this may not be a required update. To verify if the affected file is installed, search for the file named Msasn1.dll. If this file is present, this security update is required. Windows Update, Software Update Services, and the Microsoft Security Baseline Analyzer will also correctly detect if this update is required.
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Security Update for Internet Explorer
Feb 03 2004-Microsoft released a security bulletin yesterday providing fixes for three major security flaws related to its Internet Explorer browser, one of which allows hackers to mask the Internet address of a fake Web site.
This is a cumulative update that includes the functionality of all the previously-released updates for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 5.5, and Internet Explorer 6.0. Additionally, it eliminates the following three newly-discovered vulnerabilities...
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Ten Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better
Jan 30 2004-We thought we would go ahead and link to Fred's previous story as well, a good companion to the previous tip.
Fred Langa offers tips on how to optimize Windows XP for your own work style so you don't have to live with its default settings.
Microsoft ships each copy of Windows with "default" settings that are designed to be "good enough" for most people. The default settings are a kind of lowest common denominator, ensuring that the operating system will work okay for the mythical "average user."
But, if you're reading this, chances are you're not an average user. You probably know that you can unlock much more of your system's potential by changing Windows' default settings to suit your own particular working style and circumstances.
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Ten More Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better
January 26 2004-Fred Langa examines free add-ons and utilities that further refine and improve your operating system.
In our original "Ten Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better" we covered many fundamental tweaks and adjustments that can help you to move XP out of its bland and sometimes limiting default settings and into a configuration that better fits your own personal needs, preferences, and work style.
Of course, there actually are thousands of possible adjustments you can make. In that original article, I simply tried to pick the 10 I thought would help the most people.
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New worm draws Sobig comparisons
Jan 20 2004-Computer security experts fear a new worm that began spreading rapidly across Australian e-mail networks on Sunday could be a rehearsal for a more concerted attack in coming weeks.
The worm--dubbed Bagle-A--carries an expiry date, possibly indicating more robust versions of the worm could be slated for release soon, said Daniel Zatz, security director for Computer Associates Australia.
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IBM to add 15,000 new jobs
Jan 19 2004-IBM will hire 15,000 new employees--50 percent more than originally planned--in areas such as software and services because of a rebound in the economy, a top executive said Saturday.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, which has faced criticism for its plans to shift some U.S. jobs to cheaper locations such as India and China, will add about 4,500 net jobs in the United States this year, said Randy MacDonald, IBM's senior vice president for human resources.
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Justice Dept.: Microsoft's 'fallen short'
Jan 16 2004-The U.S. Justice Department on Friday expressed concern that Microsoft has not completely lived up to its agreement to disclose Windows communications protocols, as required by a 2002 antitrust agreement.
In an 18-page filing with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the government said the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program has "fallen short" of fully satisfying the settlement and that "additional work still needs to be done."
In that settlement, designed to end seven years of antitrust litigation, Microsoft agreed to disclose each communication protocol used in Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP and to make them available for licensing for a fee. Depending on the application, the fees range from $8 to $950 for each copy sold by the third-party developer, less any volume discounts.
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Happy New Year
Jan 01 2004- Hope everyone has a Happy New year!.
First Look At Windows XP Service Pack 2
Dec 31 2003-Security Pipeline obtained access to the first widespread beta of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) during the holidays. Microsoft has said that this beta represents a subset of what will be released when this software is finalized sometime during the first half of 2004.
We tested the new software on a couple of test machines, and found it to be very reliable during a couple of days use. It's not recommended that you install this beta in a production environment, however.
Unlike many Windows service packs, this one adds new functionality. There are four main areas where Microsoft has made user interface changes. They are, 1. Automatic Updates, 2. Windows Firewall (previously known as Internet Connection Firewall, or ICF), 3. Wireless Networking network controls, and 4. A new pop-up blocker for Internet Explorer.
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Merry Christmas
Dec 25 2003- Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New year!.
Windows XP 2 Service Pack Beta Available This Month, Final Version Due Mid-2004
Dec 18 2003-Microsoft is working out the kinks in its Windows XP 2 Service Pack, and won't ship the final version until mid-2004 according to Mike Nash, vice president of Microsoft's Security Business Unit, during a Webcast Tuesday.
"The product's complete set of features are still things we're working on in terms of the user interface and a lot of feedback we're looking to get from customers," said Nash. "We're gearing this toward enterprise IT pro customers and developers of course, and our intent is not to do a broad beta yet."
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Gator foe bitten, but still not shy
Dec 10 2003-Fresh from settling a libel lawsuit by pulling anti-Gator pages from its site, PC Pitstop this week plans to launch a new, expanded site critical of the controversial software.
The legal game of cat and mouse between the two companies began when Gator, now named Claria though its software is still called Gator, launched a broad legal offensive to stop various companies from referring to its product as "spyware."
As part of a settlement signed Sept. 30, PC Pitstop--which scans computers for hostile and otherwise undesirable code--removed pages from its Spyware Information Center with such titles as "Is Gator Spyware?" and the "Gator Boycott List."
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Intel scientists find wall for Moore's Law
Dec 04 2003-Moore's Law, as chip manufacturers generally refer to it today, is coming to an end, according to a recent research paper.
Granted, that end likely won't come for about two decades, but Intel researchers have recently published a paper theorizing that chipmakers will hit a wall when it comes to shrinking the size of transistors, one of the chief methods for making chips that are smaller, more powerful and cheaper than their predecessors.
Manufacturers will be able to produce chips on the 16-nanometer manufacturing process, expected by conservative estimates to arrive in 2018, and maybe one or two manufacturing processes after that, but that's it.
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New flaws reported in IE 6
November 28 2003-Newly discovered security flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could let attackers invade a user's PC, but a fix is not yet available.
Danish security firm Secunia warned that when used together, the flaws could allow an attacker to execute malicious code on a user's PC.
The flaws were reported this week by researcher Liu Die Yu, who posted the information on public security messaging boards, and appear to exist on PCs that are patched with the latest Microsoft security updates. Users are advised to switch off active scripting in Internet Explorer until a patch becomes available, or to use a non-IE browser.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
November 27 2003-Hope everyone has a great holiday.
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004
November 19 2003-Today at COMDEX Las Vegas 2003, Microsoft Corp. announced Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004, the latest version of its Tablet PC operating system.
The new version features deep integration of pen support in Windows XP, making it easier to create text anywhere in Windows and familiar Windows applications. In addition to recently announced tools in the Tablet PC SDK that enable them to create pen-aware Web pages, the new operating system now offers software developers a rich set of capabilities to deliver innovative software applications based on the Tablet PC platform.
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Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2: Not Your Average Service Packs
Nov 13 2003-Last week, Microsoft held its epic Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003 in Los Angeles. PDC 2003 was a coming out party for Longhorn, the next Windows client OS, and introduced developers to upcoming technologies such as Longhorn, Visual Studio .NET (code-named Whidbey), Microsoft SQL Server (code-named Yukon), and a Microsoft.NET-based Web services infrastructure (code-named Indigo). Because many of these technologies are several months away at best, this week I want to discuss some of the more understated announcements and products Microsoft revealed last week that will more directly affect IT in the short term. Specifically, I'd like to discuss Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2003 SP1.
XP SP2 In August, Microsoft found itself in a bit of controversy when it quietly revealed through a Web site posting that it was delaying XP SP2 from fall 2003 until mid-2004. XP SP1, you might recall, shipped in August 2002, or about 10 months after the initial XP release; this new schedule means SP2 will follow SP1 by a whopping 20 months or more. When you factor in all the security hotfixes and other critical updates that Microsoft has released since SP1, that's a long wait, and new installations of XP SP1 face an installation of more than 100MB of updates from Windows Update on first boot. That's unacceptable.
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Hacker Hunt: Sponsored By Microsoft
Nov 7 2003-Microsoft Corp. gets a lot of criticism for releasing software that's vulnerable to computer worms and viruses. That's no news flash in itself, but its latest response to the problem appears to be worth its weight in gold. Instead of making the Trustworthy Computing initiative more trustworthy, it's ready to hand out some green.
Flanked by officials from the FBI, the Secret Service and Interpol, Microsoft announced yesterday it has earmarked $5 million as part of an anti-virus reward fund to dole out bounties to hunt down hackers responsible for unleashing harmful worms and viruses on the Internet.
Microsoft initially plans to offer $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the author of the original "Blaster" worm. Another $250,000 will go to the resourceful hunter who bags the creators of the "Sobig" virus. Some arrests have been made tied to variants of the MSBlast worm, but authorities are still looking for the creator of the original strain.
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Time To Check Your CDRs
Nov 4 2003-Almost three years ago, in "Is Your Data Disappearing?" we discussed the likely lifespan of burn-it-yourself CD-Rs--an important consideration when you're using CDs to archive data for long-term storage. At that time, even the cheapest CD blanks were thought to be good for at least 10 years after burning, with some premium rewriteable CR-ROMs possibly good for as long as a century.
Those estimates were based on accelerated aging tests performed on the various dyes used in CD-Rs or CD-RWs: The dye layer is what actually contains the data in a CD, and also is what gives the disk its characteristic color--blue, silver, green, etc. You can find abundant technical details in the original article, in "CD-R Media Longevity" or in Andy McFadden's ever-excellent "CD-Recordable FAQ", especially in the section called "How long do CD-Rs and CD-RWs last?"
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Microsoft Unwraps Longhorn
Oct 27 2003-For anyone who develops software for Windows PCs--and that includes nearly everyone who manages business applications--Oct. 27 is a red-letter day. Microsoft will take the wraps off the first publicly available code for its next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. It's due in 2006, if all goes according to plan. Billed as the biggest release of Microsoft's flagship product since Windows 95 nearly a decade ago, Longhorn will include technology for building a new generation of "smart client" software that combines the look and feel of PC applications such as Word or Excel with immediate access to information on the Web.
"Instead of this disconnected state between your applications, you're counting on connectivity," says Don Cosseboom, director of research and development at Molecular Inc., a developer of business software. Though Longhorn apps won't debut for at least another three years, Microsoft at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week will disclose the first technical information developers need to know about writing to a new set of technologies that could radically change how Windows PCs find, organize, present, and share information across networks.
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Make Windows XP Self-Maintaining
Oct 26 2003-It started as a small, offhand remark. As part of a discussion on another topic, I wrote, "I let my system do a full automated defrag every night (via Task Scheduler)...." To my surprise, I got a flood of reader E-mail, all along the lines of this example:
I'm using WinXP Pro and I managed to schedule a Defrag using the Task Scheduler, but at best it only opens the Defrag application but doesn't automatically start the Defrag process. How do you automatically start the defrag process using the Task Scheduler? I found one article somewhere in MS Knowledge Base stating that the Defrag application requires user intervention to actually start it.
The problem isn't in Defrag, which is indeed fully schedulable, but rather in the inconsistent way that Microsoft built front ends for XP's self-maintenance tools. For instance, XP includes a complete, automated "Wizard" for its Backup applet; the Wizard walks you through the process of setting up fully-automated backups via Task Scheduler. But there's no similar Wizard or built-in hooks to Task Scheduler for other tools, like Defrag.
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AOL Quietly Changes Windows Settings To Combat Pop-Ups
Oct 23 2003-Even more annoying than junk E-mail are all the spam messages that "pop up" through a little-used feature in Windows. As part of its spam-fighting efforts, America Online has been turning off that feature for its customers without telling them.
AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said the feedback has been all positive, and he knows of no complaints to AOL call centers about side effects on other applications that may need that feature.
Nonetheless, AOL's action worries some security experts who were told about it by The Associated Press.
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Microsoft Launches Software Barrage
Oct 21 2003-After months of testing and advance marketing, Microsoft on Tuesday formally launched its new Office System family of products, involving personal productivity applications, server software, and related services centered around the company's refreshed desktop suite, Office 2003.
The product barrage includes professional and small-business editions of Office 2003, which comes with updated versions of Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word, and the new InfoPath application for generating business documents using XML-formatted data. In addition, Microsoft introduced upgrades to its FrontPage, Project, and Visio applications, which are sold separately, and a new standalone application called OneNote, for electronic note taking. It also rolled out two improved server products--SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003--a new instant-messaging server, dubbed Live Communications Server, and a Web conferencing service, Live Meeting.
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Confusion reigns over Windows XP SP2
October 18 2003-After announcing that customers will see the next service pack for Windows XP this year, Microsoft now says it will be a beta only, and that final code is still some way off.
Just three days after a Microsoft vice president -- who is in charge of Microsoft.com and Windows Update -- told thousands of delegates at a conference in Florida that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP would be available by the end of 2003, the company has effectively retracted the comments and said that customers will see only a beta version of SP2 this year.
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Microsoft Debuts Roll-Up Of Windows XP Security Patches
Oct 17 2003-Microsoft has unveiled the first Windows XP security rollup, a collection of 22 previously available patches for that operating system.
Update Rollup 1, which has been in beta testing for the past month, is being positioned by Microsoft as a more convenient way for users to deploy patches they might have missed when the original vulnerabilities--and associated security bulletins--were posted on the Microsoft web site.
When discussion of the Rollup first started, analysts saw it as an attempt by Microsoft to provide an interim pack of security updates prior to the release of a second Service Pack for Windows XP, which at that point wasn't expected until the middle of 2004.
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Lengthy Windows XP upgrades 'cost firms thousands'
Oct 15 2003-Inefficient manual method taking too long, says research.
Many companies that migrate their suite of desktop PCs to Windows XP are wasting thousands of pounds because they are conducting the process inefficiently, research published this week has found.
The study conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne found that over 90 percent of companies that have upgraded to Windows XP took longer than three months to complete the process, and that 60 percent of companies that have yet to migrate have calculated the process will take more than six months.
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Windows XP: How slow can you go?
Oct 09 2003-Much-hyped migrations are still in limbo...
The migration to Windows XP is yet to take off in the UK - with companies still holding off on making the move to Microsoft's most recent desktop operating system for a variety of reasons.
Only 11 per cent of companies surveyed by research firm Vanson Bourne have already made the migration to the system released in October 2001.
The most common reasons for companies not making the switch - cited by 45 per cent of respondents - are concerns about the complexity of the roll-out process and demands it would put upon already stretched resources within the IT department.
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VeriSign shuts down Web site finder
Oct 04 2003-Web address provider VeriSign Inc. said on Friday it would suspend a controversial new service that steers mistaken Web searches to its own page after the organization that oversees Internet policies demanded it do so.
Earlier on Friday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers issued a statement insisting that VeriSign halt its SiteFinder service and restore the ".com" and ".net" Web domains to the way they were before Sept. 15, when VeriSign began the service.
ICANN gave VeriSign until 6 p.m. PDT to comply with the request or face sanctions for violating its contract with ICANN.
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Microsoft moves to integrate Windows with BIOS
Oct 03 2003-A deal with BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies would allow the operating system to directly control hardware. It also raises concerns over who controls the software in PCs.
Microsoft has expanded its relationship with BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies in a deal designed to more closely integrate the basic building blocks of the PC with the Windows operating system.
The relationship, announced this week, is designed to make PCs simpler and more reliable, the companies said. The move is likely to put consumer rights advocates on their guard, however, since both Microsoft and Phoenix are involved in plans to integrate digital rights management (DRM) technology at the operating system and hardware level. DRM is designed to give copyright owners more control over how users make use of software and content, but has been criticised as eroding consumer rights.
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Hauppauge Announces Support for Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
Sep 30 2003-Hauppauge Digital, Inc. a leading developer and manufacturer of digital video TV and data broadcast receiver products for personal computers, today announced support for Windows XP Media Center 2004 on its WinTV-PVR-250MCE for North America, Europe, and Asia.
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 evolves the home PC with easy-to-use integrated digital entertainment that you can enjoy when and how you want. It combines traditional PC tasks, like word processing, e-mail and web browsing, with the ability to enjoy music, television, personal video recording (PVR), digital camera pictures, digital video and DVD with remote control access. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 makes enjoying digital media easier, more convenient and more integrated.
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Microsoft unwraps Windows XP 64-bit beta
Sep 26 2003-Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released the beta for its 64-bit version of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD's) forthcoming Opteron and Athlon64 processors.
Beta availability of the 64-bit desktop operating system was designed to compliment AMD's launch of its long-awaited Athlon64 processor (AMD64) in San Francisco. Operating system support from Microsoft is seen within the industry as a key component for the success of AMD's 64-bit chip.
The Athlon64 can run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications on a PC with a 64-bit operating system, and with the Microsoft's Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) emulation technology, customers can run current 32-bit applications on the 64-bit operating system all without a reduction in performance speeds , the company said in a statement. Customers investing in 64-bit technology don't have to worry about losing the use of current applications while at the same time opening the door to future upgrades as 64-bit applications become available, Microsoft said.
Final releases of both the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems and Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems are scheduled for the first half of 2004, the Redmond, Washington, company said.
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Performance Degradation Occurs in the UnmapViewOfFile Function
May 16 2003-A program that uses large mapped file views to share information between two processes may experience a significant performance decrease. The performance degradation occurs in the UnmapViewOfFile function.
This problem occurs if you install Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) on an Intel Pentium 4 computer that has more than one logical processor.
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WLAN goes gangbusters
June 16 2003-Wireless LAN shipments more than doubled in 2002. According to analysts Gartner, worldwide WLAN equipment shipments totalled 19.5 million units in 2002, 120 per cent up from 2001 shipments of 8.9 million units. Revenues increased a more modest 29 per cent because of the falling price of kit as the market becomes commoditised.
"As one of the few growth areas in network equipment, the wireless LAN market is attracting a large number of vendors. The resulting competition is forcing prices down, benefiting end-users by creating a wide choice of low-cost products," said Andy Rolfe, principal analyst for Gartner's worldwide telecommunications and networking group.
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Microsoft gives IE for Mac the boot
June 15 2003-Microsoft will not create a new version of Internet Explorer for Macs in a move that leaves Apple users in an uncomfortable spot.
Jimmy Grewal, the Microsoft Mac IE lead, is fleeing Redmond and heading to Dubai due to the browser's termination. Microsoft is saying it will provide some updates to IE 5 for Macs but does not plan to release an IE 6. It reckons users are in good hands with Apple's own Safari browser, and so the trouble begins.
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McNealy takes free shots at Microsoft
June 14 2003-Recommends .NET go back to Vocational School. Scott McNealy didn't hesitate to slam Microsoft during his keynote address yesterday morning. His humorous and cutting remarks about the Vole were well received by thousands of conference-goers who attended JavaOne. Some of his wittier remarks:
"I was talking with a good friend of mine in the industry, we'll call him 'Bill'. I asked him what has been his greatest contribution to the market. He told me 'We separated the hardware from the software'." Scott then pulled out his cellphone and laughed, "You know, I'm really glad I didn't have to buy an operating system for this telephone. There are cars out there with 100 microprocessors in them. Can you imagine having to get online to download your left blinker software, or patch your windshield wipers?"
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Microsoft Launches TV Software Platform
June 9 2003-Microsoft on Monday plans to unveil new software to help cable television companies develop digital TV programming and services. The software, called Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, is a new technological platform designed to run on the digital cable boxes that sit atop many television sets.
The software, installed on both customers' set-top boxes and on computer servers at cable companies, includes applications for cable operators to create and deliver on-screen TV guides, movies-on-demand, and interactive advertisements for their customers.
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Microsoft slashes WinXP price to kill Lindows OS
June 8 2003-Founder claims MS uses money to block retail sales. THE FOUNDER of Lindows, Michael Robertson, has penned a piece on techzone in which he alleges that Microsoft is using its vast financial resources to block his firm's OS being sold by retailers. And that means one Lindows OS retailer is being wooed with a price of just $50 for Windows XP in an attempt to wean it off the competition. Robertson claims in the article that Microsoft routinely offers money to companies to not use the Lindows OS or resell it.
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Internet Via Power Lines Works, but Years Away
June 7 2003-High-speed Internet access via power lines is as close as an electrical outlet in a house north of New York City, but bringing it to the rest of the world may be a long way off. Under a research project by Consolidated Edison Inc. and Ambient Corp., a few modifications allow Internet data to race over decades-old power lines. The companies hope the technology can bring cheap, fast Web access to any standard household electrical outlet.
"People have been sending signals ... through power lines for a long time," said George Jee, manager for ConEd's power line communication project. "Utilities used to send audio signals across lines to check service."
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Support WebCast: New Microsoft Windows XP Command-line Tools and Troubleshooting Utilities
June 3 2003-A few days ago, Microsoft releases this webpage, it it a support webcast and lasts over an hour and a half, it also includes a powerpoint presentation. During this session, we will describe the new tools that ship in Microsoft Windows XP as well as the support tools, and how they can be used by support professionals. This session assumes that you have introductory-level knowledge of the command shell, Cmd.exe, and how command-line tools work; prior knowledge of the tools is not required. There are more than 40 new tools in Windows XP that can help you identify and troubleshoot issues, as well as automate routine maintenance tasks. We will discuss these tools as well as the batch and script language that can be used to automate the tools.
This is a Level 100 session that was recorded October 11, 2001 and presented by Clark Gilder. Clark Gilder joined Microsoft as a systems engineer in 1991. After five years in the field helping customers deploy Microsoft products, he moved to the product groups. For Windows 2000, he developed the Application Compatibility program (Apcompat.exe) for server and enterprise line-of-business applications. For Windows XP, he is the lead program manager on the manageability initiative, which is designed to improve the non-GUI management capabilities of the product by building new command-line tools. He has been designing software for Windows since 1987.
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Windows Explorer secrets exposed
May 31 2003-Software group opens up hidden interfaces only seen by Microsoft developers. Secret software interfaces hidden in Windows and previously only available to Microsoft's own developers have been exposed to the wider developer community.
Using NSELib Namespace Extension Library, created by software engineering firm Whirling Dervishes, developers can create applications that reside in Windows Explorer.
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Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-019
May 28 2003-Flaw in ISAPI Extension for Windows Media Services Could Cause Denial of Service (817772)
Microsoft Windows Media Services is a feature of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server and is also available as a downloadable version for Windows NT 4.0 Server. Windows Media Services contain support for a method of delivering media content to clients across a network known as multicast streaming. In multicast streaming however, the server has no connection or knowledge of the clients that may be receiving the stream coming from the server. To facilitate logging of client information for the server Windows 2000 includes a capability specifically designed for that purpose. To help with this problem, Windows 2000 includes logging capabilities for multicast and unicast transmissions.
This capability is implemented as an Internet Services Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) extension – nsiislog.dll. When Windows Media Services are installed in Windows NT 4.0 Server or added through add/remove programs to Windows 2000, nsiislog.dll is installed to the Internet Information Services (IIS) Scripts directory on the server.
There is a flaw in the way in which nsiislog.dll processes incoming requests. A vulnerability exists because an attacker could send specially formed communications to the server that could cause IIS to stop responding to Internet requests.
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Problematic Windows XP Update Pulled
May 28 2003-Microsoft late Tuesday withdrew a Windows XP software update after thousands of users complained the patch was blocking Internet connectivity. The Windows XP update, first posted on May 21, was issued to enhance the functionality of the Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) and Internet Protocol security (IPSec) on PCs running Windows XP or Windows 2000.
It was issued to deal with changes to the way IPSec encryption was used by PCs behind firewalls and to better support virtual private network (VPN) clients behind network address translation (NAT) devices. The update also included additional support for stronger IPSec protection by using the 2048-bit Diffie-Hellman algorithm, the company explained.
However, about half a million users who applied the fix via the operating system's automatic Windows Update feature complained that it blocked Internet connectivity and Microsoft was forced to yank the update.
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DoS Holes Plugged in Apache 2.0
May 28 2003-As part of a deliberate effort to be proactive about security updates, the Apache Software Foundation on Wednesday released a new version open-source Apache 2.0 HTTP Server to fix two potentially serious denial-of-service (define) vulnerabilities.
The Foundation, which was burned in the past when a high-risk exploit was released on security mailing lists before a patch could be issued, released version 2.0.46 of the server on Wednesday but is withholding details of the security holes until users can apply the upgrade.
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Bluetooth's broken. Here's how to fix it
May 27 2003-Though he didn't quite say it this way, my fellow ZDNet columnist David Berlind is right: Bluetooth sucks. In his column last Friday, Berlind described how he summoned the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) out to his home office, where he demonstrated for them the joys of trying to use a "standard" that never really became one.
If the SIG folks had come to my home office, I would have shown them much the same thing. But my advice would have been different. Berlind and I usually see the same problems but often disagree on the solutions.
RIGHT NOW, I have a Bluetooth printer and a Bluetooth-enabled PDA sitting on my desk. I also have a Bluetooth cellular telephone. I used to have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. And my Apple iMac is Bluetooth-equipped, thanks to a tiny USB adapter I'm now sorry I bought.
All of this stuff works, mind you. It's just that every time I install something new, the old stuff breaks. I used to be able to use the Bluetooth keyboard or the printer, but not both. The iPaq once synced wirelessly just fine, but stopped when I installed the printer or the keyboard. And, in the great tradition of Apple promoting technologies it doesn't quite support, the iMac will talk to the phone just fine but knows nothing at all about the printer.
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eBay Ordered to Pay $35M in Patent Claim
May 27 2003-A federal jury Tuesday ordered online auction giant eBay to pay $35 million in damages after it found the company infringed on several patents owned by Great Falls, Va.-based MercExchange.
The jury reached its unanimous verdict Tuesday in a civil court in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, saying eBay "willfully and directly" infringed on all counts of two of MercExchange's patents. The judge must still approve the decision and may tack on even more damages.
San Jose, Calif.-based eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove summed it up in one word: "Disappointed."
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Virus Information Alliance (VIA)
May 26 2003-The Microsoft Product Support Services Security Team is pleased to announce our participation in a new virus information-sharing program with industry leading anti-virus software vendors. Microsoft has joined forces with Network Associates and Trend Micro in order to provide our customers with detailed information on significant viruses that are affecting Microsoft products and our customers.
As part of this alliance, Microsoft, Network Associates’ AVERT (Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team) and Trend Micro TrendLabs will exchange valuable technical information on newly discovered viruses so that we can more quickly communicate to customers their targets, impact and methods of remediation. We believe this alliance will allow us to provide authoritative and timely information to customers on newly discovered viruses in the wild, while at the same time referring customers to their preferred participating anti-virus vendor for additional details. Microsoft Product Support Services will continue to offer additional support to customers affected by viruses free of charge and will work with our customer’s anti-virus vendor on the necessary steps for resolution.
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Why Microsoft won't make your car crash
May 25 2003-A friend--one of those computer people who delight in pointing out technology's pratfalls--sent me a link to a news story this week. The headline read: "Govt. official trapped in car after computer fails."
"Security guards smashed their way into an official limousine with sledgehammers on Monday to rescue Thailand's finance minister after his car's computer failed," the Reuters news service dispatch said.
Seems that the computer in Suchart Jaovisidha's BMW failed, automatically locking all the doors and shutting off the air-conditioning. "We could hardly breathe for over 10 minutes," the freed minister told reporters. "It was a harrowing experience."
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Windows Server 2003 Backup Conflicts With Windows XP
May 24 2003-A solution provider has discovered an incompatibility between Windows Server 2003's new backup features and Windows XP.
Terabyte Computers, Boone, N.C., is recommending that its customers hold off on deploying Windows Server 2003 because of problems restoring data from a backup tape created on Windows Server 2003 to Windows XP and, potentially, Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 2000 server.
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PayPal scam rises again
May 23 2003-PayPal users are once again the targets of a hit-and-run e-mail scam aimed at conning them out of their personal and financial information.
On Thursday, netizens began receiving a convincing forgery of a PayPal e-mail, with the subject line "PayPal Verification" and the false return address verification@paypal.com.
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'Matrix' loads up $50 million for Atari
May 23 2003-Europe's largest video game maker, Atari, said on Friday that its new "Enter the Matrix" game sold more than one million copies in the first week of its launch, sending its shares higher.
"Enter the Matrix," launched on May 15, is "the No. 1-selling video game worldwide, selling more than one million units in the U.S. and Europe in the first week of availability," the French-American video game publisher said in a statement.
Atari, which recently changed its name from Infogrames to reflect its acquisition of one of the oldest video game brands, saw its shares rise as much as five percent to a session-high of 6.14 euros ($7.27), extending Thursday's 11.61 percent gains.
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Red Hat, Linux, consumers, money - do they mix?
May 21 2003-Earlier this year Red Hat split its range into two segments - effectively, business and everything else. It did this in the wrong order, as The Register remarked at the time, but subsequently the company has padded out its Enterprise range to consist of Advanced Server, Enterprise Server and Workstation, so here at least it has a complete set.
But what's going on with 'everything else,' the product line Red Hat terms 'consumer'? After speaking to Red Hat marketing VP Mark de Visser last week The Register left with the strong impression that the answer in the short term was not a lot, or more of the same, while the real upheaval will take place in the longer term, and probably doesn't yet have anything you'd call a serious blueprint. Our parting impression, incidentally, should not necessarily be viewed as criticism; Red Hat, in common with the other major distributions, is still trying to figure out how you make money starting from free, and the bottom line is that the enterprise line shows prospects of making money while the consumer one as currently constituted does not.
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Internet Connection Firewall and Basic Firewall Do Not Block Internet Protocol Version 6 Traffic
May 18 2003-With Microsoft Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) installed and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) or Basic Firewall enabled, the firewall filters Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) traffic, but the basic firewall and the ICF does not block or filter IPv6 traffic.
Note ICF is available on Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition and Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. Basic Firewall is a component of Routing and Remote Access that you can enable for any public interface on a computer running both Routing and Remote Access and a member of the Windows Server 2003 family.
Go here, I'm sure everyone will love their "fix".
The Road to Windows Longhorn
May 15 2003-At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2003 trade show in New Orleans in May 2003, Microsoft finally revealed its roadmap for Longhorn, the next major Windows desktop version, and the successor to Windows XP. Longhorn, as readers of this site know, will be the most dramatic and exciting release of Windows ever, and the most important update to the product since Windows 95. As I noted in my first Longhorn preview, published almost a year and a half ago, Longhorn has long been wrapped in mystery, with conflicting reports about the product's features and an unprecedented number of purposefully forged screenshots, video clips, and technical documents. In that first preview, I played the role of debunker, forced to document the many Longhorn fakes out there, explain why they weren't real, and then detail the information about Longhorn I knew to be correct. This year, things are becoming more clear, thanks to a suddenly open and communicative Microsoft, and the all-to-obvious fakes are fewer. So here's what we know about Longhorn, circa mid-2003.
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Windows XP Captures One-Third Of O/S Market On The Web
May 13 2003-Despite Significant Growth, XP’s Adoption Rate Slower than Windows 98, According to HitBox StatMarket. WebSideStory, Inc. today reported that Microsoft Windows XP is now being used by more than one-third of Internet users worldwide and is by far the most popular operating system version on the Web. As of May 7, 2003, Windows XP had a global Web usage share of nearly 35 percent, about 10 percentage points higher than the next most popular version, Windows 98, according to WebSideStory’s HitBox StatMarket (www.StatMarket.com), a leading source of data on global Internet user trends. Global usage share is the percentage of Internet visitors who are using a particular operating system.
Despite significant growth, Windows XP has taken three times longer than Windows 98 to capture one-third of the market. Windows XP first reached 33 percent global usage share in late March 2003, nearly 18 months after its launch in October 2001. Windows 98, on the other hand, reached the same benchmark in January 1999, only six months after its launch.
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Windows XP to see double
May 10 2003-Microsoft plans to retool its Windows XP operating system so that two people can run applications on the same machine concurrently, an important step toward the company's goal of transforming the PC into a home entertainment center.
Service Pack 2 of Windows XP will let one person manipulate applications via the keyboard while another person views pictures or surfs the Internet on the same computer via a smart display, according to a source.
A smart display, which Microsoft developed under the code name Mira, is typically a 10-inch or 15-inch detachable monitor running Microsoft's Windows CE for Smart Displays operating system. They do not contain hard drives and do not connect directly to the Internet. Instead, they funnel requests to, and receive data from, a base station PC running Windows XP. Once detached, the smart display connects back to the PC using 802.11 wireless networking for accessing e-mail, surfing the Web or reading documents. A stylus, rather than a keyboard, is used to input data.
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Unix reclaims server speed crown
May 9 2003-Just weeks after a Windows server took top spot in a key speed test for the first time, a new IBM computer has won the crown back for Unix.
IBM's p690 Turbo Unix server, newly overhauled with faster processors and other components, posted a score of 681,000 transactions per minute on the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C test. It edged ahead of the 658,000 score posted two weeks ago by Hewlett-Packard's Superdome running Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 operating system.
"I saw (Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer stand in front of a German audience and crow that they had TPC-C bragging rights. Well, they don't," RedMonk analyst James Governor said.Go here for more.
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Week in review: Red-faced Redmond
May 9 2003-A serious security flaw in Microsoft's Passport service put more than just its 200 million customers' accounts at risk of being hijacked--it also gave the software giant a public relations black eye and opened it up to some stiff fines.
The flaw, in Passport's password recovery mechanism, could have allowed an attacker to change the password on any account to which the username is known. The simplicity of the attack method and the high value of the data frequently stored in Passport accounts--names, addresses, birthdates and credit card numbers--combined to make the vulnerability critical.
Microsoft immediately turned off the feature, and security and product teams worked overnight to fix the flaw. By the next morning, the company had replaced the service with a more secure version, one that should have been there in the first place. The feature had been around since September 2002, and Microsoft is investigating to what degree the flaw may have been exploited by online vandals to grab user accounts.
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Introduction and Longhorn Overview
May 9 2003-Recently the press has been going mad for Longhorn so for those who don’t know what “Longhorn” is or want to know about the nitty gritty of the next Microsoft operating system and what it is going to do for them. This is for you.
Planned to be released in 2005 Longhorn is the follow on to the line of Microsoft’s Professional Operating Systems. Concentrating on the usability of the operating system and trying to improve on the things we do every day. Trying to convert mundane and boring tasks into a more user friendly experience for the user. Harnessing the power of .NET technology at its core, it is a full on environment with areas dotted everywhere for developers to “plug-in” and harness its power. Although Windows currently today holds the vast majority of the home user market this article will talk about mostly the server powered end of Longhorn intended for Business. Ill try and keep the home user bits to a minimum because although vastly improved, they have been well documented.
Microsoft Longhorn XP 2003 edition is what the system property sheet tells me I’m currently running and although it is a very nice name I doubt highly it will stay this way. I imagine they would be heading towards something more like Microsoft XP 2005 if they are brave enough to drop the term windows. So what’s new and what’s cool? Well the most common change that’s pretty easy to spot is this big bar that they decided to put on the right hand side of my screen. As it stands at the moment the “task bar” is at the bottom of the screen but I can guarantee that out of the box (release) it will side merged into the side bar. In all my screenshots you will notice that I have the side bar and task bar merged as one on the left hand side of the screen. I find it easier to work this way it seems to make more sense in my eyes.
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Spring Into Creativity
May 5 2003-Windows XP puts your imagination in charge, making it easy to create greeting cards with your own photos, spice up your home movies with new sound effects and turn them into video screen savers, turn your computer into the party jukebox, and more.
Download New Windows XP Creativity Fun Packs and Download screen savers, PowerToys, and other tools that help you have more fun and create amazing things with Windows XP this spring.
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Right click causes 100% CPU usage
April 30 2003-I have found a problem in Windows XP in that right clicking on a file in Windows Explorer causes 100% CPU utilization on Windows XP. This only happens on files that have not been selected first with a left mouse click. This problem is reproducible on Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 machines of varying speed, does not happen on Pentium 2 systems.
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Latest Windows XP patch can slow down PCs
April 24 2003-Just in case everyone has missed all of the postings about this, I just realized I had not posted anything about it yet.
Microsoft's latest security patch can cause computers running Windows XP to slow down to a crawl, affected users say.
Windows XP can take up to 10 seconds to start an application after installation of the patch released last Wednesday with security bulletin MS03-013, users wrote in dozens of postings on several online discussion boards. Removing the patch brings system speed back to normal, according to these users.
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